In the past 24 hours, the number of Western news agencies reporting details and speculations about Diana O'Brien’s death have multiplied. Shanghai police have stayed quiet on the death though, refusing to report details to foreign press. The result is a series of conflicting stories, most of which point to the model’s death occurring in her own Shanghai apartment building, not on Chongming Island, as we reported yesterday. Some sources say that she was killed......

To be frank, we were kind of hoping that we wouldn't have to do a whole post about Celine Dion on Shanghaiist, but then this article from China Daily struck us as somewhat odd and we felt we should share our cynicisms with you. Here's what China Daily reported yesterday: The highly anticipated Celine Dion show on April 13 in Beijing might be canceled because the singer is suffering from a throat infection. What's so......

All this month (that would be March), the photography of Hong Kong artist Norm Yip will be on display not on the walls of a fancy-schmancy gallery on Moganshan Road, but on the meandering walls of Shanghai Studio. The photography, in mostly black and white, features fit, mostly East Asian men in various stages of undress, in front of simple backgrounds or stark black backdrops. The pictures do not feature any naughty bits, so Mr.......

Diving queen Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) has been slammed left right and centre for her less than stellar behaviour at a press conference after taking home the silver for the women's 3m springboard final at the "Good Luck Beijing" FINA Diving World Cup where she was edged out by team mate Wu Minxia (吴敏霞). Guo was described by the media as highly "inattentive" at the press conference attended by over 100 local and foreign journalists, looking......

We were surprised to read from the China Briefing blog that ShanghaiExpat.com has been reported to the Chinese Network Security Police:The social expatriate website Shanghaiexpat.com has had a legal case against it lodged with the network security division of the Public Security Bureau in Shanghai for libel and ‘disrupting social harmony’ it has been reported today. The site, which last year celebrated its fifth anniversary, has proved popular with local expatriates yet has consistently drawn......

Censorship Sydney Morning Herald: China to tighten Internet control Guardian Unlimited: China cracks down on "vulgar" entertainment NYT: China Censors a Film, Then Bans It Entirely The building frenzy Canada.com: Beijing's new skyline: China set to show off to the world Indo-Asian News Service: Beijing opens world's largest air terminal The great big clean-up IHT: Beijing steel company shuts down blast furnace in cleanup effort before Olympics Environment News Service: China to Begin First......

For a second straight week Shanghaiist has missed our Friday deadline, oops. The good news is that Saturday is when all the really good stuff happens. Today, eight Shanghai bands (1 from Beijing) will take part in the 0093 show at 4live, scheduled to start at 4:30pm. This should be a great showcase of the various genres of music that Shanghai bands have to offer, ranging from noise to metal to garage rock and everything......

Since Net Nanny lifted her ban on YouTube, we have been catching up on the some of the vids that we missed during the year-long ban...okay, it wasn't that long. Looking for any excuse to waste time and avoid Christmas shopping, we watched every episode available of the first season of Project Runway Canada (the other PRC in our lives). It's the Canadian version of the very popular (especially among the LGBT crowd) American show,......

Leave it to the Chinese to make a business out of anything. Richard Spencer of The Telegraph reports that a new breed of waste collectors has struck deals with jewellery makers to pan for gold in the sewage. This business is now proving to be so lucrative that one building has sold the rights to its sewage for 140,000 yuan a year. We wonder how much our sewage is worth.The Indians may be generally envious......

We've been somewhat faithful readers of Foreign Policy for awhile and noticed that they had a couple of articles that either mention or focus on China in their recent issue. Jeff Chang has written an article called It's a Hip-Hop World where he talks about how globalized hip hop has become, and, in this context, mentions Shanghai. More worrisome than a bunch of seventeen-year-olds in baggy pants is information we found in the article on......

Two nights ago, Canada’s CBC aired a documentary titled China’s Sexual Revolution. It was shot in Shanghai and Beijing using hidden cameras and interviews with academics and pop culture figures. While we haven’t yet seen the thing, it apparently cobbles together AIDS, bar culture, and the manufacture of sex toys to look at how China is “a country that’s quickly becoming X-rated.” In the trailer, the camera pans a Shanghai disco as the narrator solemnly......

Well, this weekend there might not be a 1234 Beach Rock Festival, but that is no reason to stay home, curled up with a blankie, crying about what might have been. Live Bar out in Yangpu has shows going every night, showcasing emerging underground acts from Shanghai and Beijing. Friday night, Yuyintang will be hosting big hair, metal band Arch Enemy from Sweden. Apparently this is a pretty well known European metal band, and after......

In our 10 years of clubbing life we have never seen anything like this: The DJ with the fast fingers is Jeff Milligan and if you like him you can see him live at Air Bar this Saturday. His website says: Jeff's highly technical, three/four turntable style put him in high demand across North America and by the age of twenty, Jeff was playing the Midwest circuit (Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland etc.) and nationwide, all over......

Comments below don’t necessarily represent the Shanghaiist’s point of view or opinion regarding the Canadian government (we don't want them to hold a grudge and kick us out of Canada too!)… we just received it recently from the Busdriver promoter and thought it was kind of funny… shows are still on in Beijing and Shanghai…..and we are as giddy as a school boy in the girls locker room to see Busdriver play live! “Nothing......

China rejects pork imports from U.S., Canada [Reuters] China has rejected shipments of pork kidney from the United States and of spare ribs from Canada after finding traces of a banned growth agent in them, in the latest volley of cross-border accusations over product quality. China's kung fu peace-keepers head for Darfur [The Telegraph] With kung fu, automatic rifles and armoured personnel carriers, China showed off its new-found power this weekend, and how it says......

At the risk of pissing off our rich and powerful film producer friends and thereby never getting invited to a press junket again, we want to begin this movie review with a simple declarative sentence, the likes of which has not and may never be seen again in film criticism: the movie Blood Brothers (天堂口) sucked ass. If you were to ask why first-time helmer Alexi Tan's film sucked, when it had John Woo executive......

Not content with making cars and computers for the world, China is now on to its next big thing -- aircraft. The long-awaited ARJ-21 (pictured here) is China's very first homegrown commercial aircraft and has been launched amid much fanfare by the aircraft maker AVIC I. Now only a name is lacking, and if you can come up with a creative Chinese name of between two and four Chinese characters before September 28, RMB50,000 will......

Typhoon Sepat causes heavy agriculture losses in Taiwan [Xinhuanet] Typhoon pounds Taiwan, disrupting air, rail travel [Inquirer.net] Typhoon Sepat Goes Ashore in China's Fujian Province [Bloomberg] Typhoon forces almost a million Chinese from homes [Canada.com] Photo of Typhoon Sepat approaching Taiwan from ruei_ke. Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Simply post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply......

Shanghai Normal University's Geography vice-dean drowns after saving student's life [Shanghai Daily] He Baogen, 45-year-old vice dean of Shanghai Normal University's geography department, has been found dead in a tidal creek at Dongtan wetland on Chongming Island on Friday morning. He was swept away by the rising waters while trying to save a student's life. Olympics `like a spiritual event' for Beijing residents [Mercury News] "Perhaps the greatest attribute the Chinese are revealing to the......

The fourth concert in the JazzArt series takes place this Sunday August 12 at 3pm at the TwoCities gallery on Moganshan lu, and will feature the music of Canadian Clarinetist and Composer extraordinaire James Danderfer. He will lead a 5-piece group, performing original contemporary jazz that he has been writing over the last year in preparation for a recording the group will make, supported by a grant awarded by the Canada Council For the Arts.......

Jakob Montrasio points us to a most unbelievable ranking of the world's top 25 cities with skyscrapers published by the German magazine Spiegel: 1: Hongkong, China. 7422 skyscrapers. 2: New York City, USA. 5445 skyscrapers. 3: Singapore 3503 skyscrapers. 4 million people. 4: São Paulo, Brazil. 3012 skyscrapers. 10 million people. 5: Seoul, Korea. 2831 skyscrapers. 6: Istanbul, Turkey. 2093 skyscrapers. Over 10 million people. 7: Tokyo, Japan. 2074 skyscrapers. 12 million people. 8: Rio......

Now, that felt like a 4th of July party (and some Canadians in attendance said it wasn't a bad effort for Canada Day, either). Hot, sweaty weather. No rain! Hamburgers. Beer. Live music. Water balloons. Hamburgers. Beer. Drinking contests. Fireworks (albeit during daylight). Hamburgers. Beer. Ketchup battles. Some guy from Beijing getting pantsed. Hamburgers. Beer. You know, the usual. A big congratulations to chef Eric Johnson and Team Jean-Georges — they created the judges' choice......

This weekend is going to be a HUGE weekend for the live music scene in Shanghai. By Sunday if you don't have that loud buzz ringing in your ears then you missed out on some great shows. Rock It, Shanghai's very own rock festival (name stolen from the Rock It music festival held every October in Hong Kong) opens its doors on Friday, and if those pesky little kids peeing in the pools with......

Only five more days until the City Diner/Shanghaiist 4th of July party this Sunday — which, yes, we realize is the 1st of July and (thanks to a commenter) Canada Day. But we promise this party, like all Shanghaiist parties, is very Canadian friendly. In fact, this party is open to anyone of any nationality who enjoys food, drink, music and fun. Sound like you? Here are the party details: What: City Diner Independence Day......

In Shanghaiist's past life, when she was not Shanghaiist but, rather, Torontoist -- oops, that's right, she wrote for the better local blog, blogTO -- she used to go to a kickass monthly called Shuffle. The crowd was usually good, the vibe was mostly tight, but the music -- oh, that music -- was always ace. It was mash-up -- IDM-lovers, micro genre snobs, and digital deconstructionists, look away! -- and it was a......

"People say they love hip hop, but then they go to Guandii. To me, we’ve never had hip hop in China. We just took things from the States. It’s never been homegrown. And I really hope we can have a scene to call our own." Those are the words of one Gary Wang (aka DJ V-Nutz), local hip hop hustler and pusher. Wang, along with partner DJ Fortune, runs The Lab, a non-profit studio dedicated......

Fox: Read My Tattoos, No Prison Break In China "News Corporation's (NYSE: NWS.A) Fox Television denied that it has licensed Beijing based media company Zonbo Media to remake American TV series Prison Break or any related online activities in China, reports Beijing Youth Daily." Lawsuit says Ark. company selling counterfeit Budweiser in China "Anheuser-Busch Inc. sued USA Bai Wei Group Inc. in Arkansas' Pulaski County Circuit Court, seeking an injunction to revoke Bai Wei's......

China is biggest espionage threat to Canada "Almost half of counter-espionage efforts in Canada target Chinese spies, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service told a senate committee on Monday." Songs, kisses and sweat on Labor Day of migrant workers "In the prosperous metropolis of Shanghai, migrant workers even joined in performances, singing and dancing and taking part in games to show their talents." Hershey lures Asians with green tea Kisses "The century-old......

We use the word "blockbuster" very loosely. Via our Contribute page we found this recent post by Shanghai blogger Jakob Montrasio: So I just checked out the new ‘Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer’ trailer and guess what’s in it: the Oriental Pearl TV Tower! Awesome, seems like Mission Impossible 3 did it’s part in bringing more moviemakers to China. I wonder though, if the directors are going to show any clothes hanging around......

ChinaTechNews.com directed us to this press release about a publicly traded company named Admax Resources, Inc., and why it is changing its name to China YouTV Corp. The reason is simple, really: Admax has decided to follow the well worn path many companies take — the one where they go from mining minerals in Canada to online video sharing in China. Wait a minute ... What? Perhaps "Mr. Gao," from Admax/YouTV, is the only person......