Yes, in the old days it was a national centre. The Jing Wu school was fully running before 1920 in Zhabei. Huo Yuan Jia was the most famous, although many people think he’s fictional these days. You can’t compare now to then but you can still find a lot of Bau Gua Zhang, Taiji and Xinyi, for example. more ›

According to the official countdown, the Beijing Olympics are about 240 days away and the pressure is mounting for China's athletes to bring home the bacon, especially in China's strongest events like ping pong, diving, and gymnastics. In traditional Chinese business fashion, gymnastics coaches are making their gymnasts sign a contract to stay injury-free and drug-free in preparation for the Games, according to this article from China Daily. In an unusual move to secure a... more ›

20 year old Cuban Dayron Robles stole the show yesterday at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix yesterday with an impressive 13.01 sec at the 110m hurdles event. Together with Anwar Moore of the United States, he trumped Liu Xiang who disappointed a highly expectant home crowd. more ›

Last Saturday, Shanghaiist was invited to attend the unveiling of Shanghai's newest gallery space, m97. Once we negotiated the tricky shared building entrance, we made our way to the second floor and was immediately impressed by the physical space and airy nature of the gallery. The grand opening featured an exhibition of by emerging Beijing photographer and artist Jiang Zhi titled "Things Would Turn Simpler Once They Happened". Immediately we had diametrically opposing thoughts. "How were these photos taken?", and "I don't quite get it...". We wished that our interpretation of the photographic exhibition was as simple as the exhibition's title, but we assume this is the art part of the exhibition. Here's a little about Jiang Zhe (pictured below) and his exhibit from information posted by m97. more ›

Foreigners gobsmacked by Shanghai cab spittoons reads the headline of a Reuters report. The report refers to the reactions of "foreigners" to the spit bag idea, but only seems to cite a letter written by a foreigner into the Shanghai Daily. If we had known journalism could be this easy, we could have saved ourselves a lot of tuition money. But one thing's for sure. We need to spend more time reading British, because we had not idea what it meant to be "gobsmacked." more ›

Remember to check out his photos on Flickr. And please consider donating to the trip (you can do that here) -- all proceeds go to Hands on Shanghai's Rising Star program. more ›

Mr. Ma, toy bicycle maker more ›

The success of the website Overheard in New York has spawned similar sites in China's major cities, such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Changsha, Xi'an and Shanghai. Recent news reports on this phenomenon are referring to Chinese sites, but there are also English sites: Overheard in Shanghai and this site -- which is still empty. more ›

Newlyweds generally don't need an excuse to jump into the sack, but if they do, Shanghaiist has got a great one … excuse, that is. From our favorite hometown paper, Shanghai Daily: more ›

On Monday, at a workshop held under the UN sponsored Internet Governance Forum in Athens, Greece, Chinese diplomat Yang Xiaokun set a new world record in cognitive dissonance as he explained in an exchange with BBC anchor and session moderator, Nik Gowing, that there is no internet censorship in China. more ›

Qian Yun, walker more ›

The post's conclusion: Shanghai's subway system is cleaner than New York's. more ›

What better way to spend a windy, rainy day than reading about some guy's sexcapades on a blog? OK, there are many better ways, but maybe this site will be of interest to those of you still upset they took the soft-core porn channel off the Filipino satellite service. The site is called Sex and Shanghai / 欲望上海 (you'll need a proxy to access it in China) and we have a feeling you can guess what it's about. It's like Penthouse Letters, but localized. Here's an R-rated and, as a friend just said, "icky" taste: more ›

Well, we predicted it. In a prophetic piece of posting from the very early days of Shanghaiist’s existence, we raised the possibility of a James Brown concert in this city. Or rather, we suggested it would be a very welcome thing. more ›

Michael Ohlsson, underground DJ more ›

Go here to read a gruesome, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking first-hand account of Shanghai-based Guardian reporter Benjamin Joffe-Walt's attempt to report from Taishi, a village in Guangdong, site of what Joffe-Walt calls "perhaps the most significant grassroots social movement China has seen since the Cultural Revolution, a rural revolt against corruption, against deterioration of healthcare, against the illegal sale of farmland, and broadly against urban capitalism that has reaped no benefits for these farmers." (For more on Taishi, visit ESWN.) Joffe-Walt never actually got to Taishi. He was on his way there with democracy activist Lu Banglie, when their car was stopped and Lu was brutally beaten, perhaps to death: more ›

Kerry Shen, model more ›