Shanghai wants 50 top minds every year “Local authorities are offering lucrative packages to lure leading academics to the city under a new scheme to help boost its competitiveness.” Shanghai to launch int’l channel targeting foreigners “The ICS programs, covering news, information, fashion, entertainment, foreign TV shows and movies, will be aired in English and Japanese, with Chinese captions, for 19 hours a day.” Shanghai GM to launch Buick LaCrosse hybrid prior to Olympic......

The last time an anchor from our favourite TV channel made it to the news, he created such a brouhaha that culminated in the eviction of one coffee company from the Forbidden City. In the news this time is New Zealand-born anchor Edwin Maher who for many years before arriving in China was a weatherman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Los Angeles Times published a profile of Maher that started it all off. It......

This World AIDS Day, we witnessed an extraordinarily well-coordinated effort by Chinese media to raise AIDS awareness among the populace and to communicate the resolve of the central government to win the battle against the disease. This small sampling of stories that appeared in state-run English-language media is enough to give you an idea of what went out on Chinese news: President Hu: HIV/AIDS not scary President Hu tells HIV carriers, communities not to be......

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: Name: Peanut Age: 1. 5 years Personality: Cuddles and plays with other social cats and enjoys being around people, although needs a short period of adjustment to a new environment. Favorite hangouts: The bed (and in between foster mom’s knees if possible); the sofa next to foster dad; and anywhere a kitten friend is chilling out. Silly habits: picking......

The Ministry of Health will soon relax a 14 year old rule that bars foreigners with HIV/AIDS from entering China, although a date has not yet been set, reports the Associated Press. Needless to say, this is of MAJOR significance. As everyone who is employed in China on a work visa (and we're referring to the 'Z' visa, not the 'F') will know, if you are found to have the HIV during your health check,......

Live Bar has always been open to different genres of music, and of late, seems to be the venue of choice for Chinese folk, metal and student bands. Friday night they will host one of China's most popular nu-metal bands, Twisted Machine. Any fan of metal should not miss this show, a great chance to see what Chinese metal has to offer. On the other side of town, up'n'coming indie rockers, Yuguo will play an......

Have you ever walked down Nanjing Dong Lu and wondered, "What idiots buy those plastic wind-up tops that shoot out laser lights and play annoying music?" Well, now you have your answer: Us. We have our reasons: We're suckers for toys.We wanted to see what our dogs thought of it.They are cheap (10-15 RMB).The song it plays is "Axel F."Yes, Axel F! Anyway, the embedded video shows you what the top looks and sounds like......

A couple days ago we asked for your photos and videos from the Yue Festival last week in Shanghai, and yesterday Archie from Spli-t Works, the event's promoter, sent us a link to the video embedded in this post. Looks like Ozomatli got up close and personal with the Shanghai crowd. Shanghaiist reader T also has a set of photos from the Yue Festival on Flickr. More pics here. Another Shanghaiist reader, who we assume......

We're in Beijing now, in the midst of a dual mother and mother-in-law China visit (the first for both) ... which explains why we were unable to attend the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' gig at the Modern Sky Festival here in the nation's capital yesterday. A YouTube user named zasieia was there, however, and he/she posted a video of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performing "Honeybear" (or at least part of it). The video is embedded in......

The Pet Paradise Asia 2007 expo opened in pavilion W5 of the New International Expo Center to commercial representatives early on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday for a second two-day run. When Shanghaiist dropped by yesterday afternoon, the place was hopping — booths retailing pet supplies and giving away samples, a dog show, and plenty of pet fans eager to pet anything furry and barking/meowing. Most of the exhibitors were targeting dog......

Yesterday evening, China’s central bank hiked deposit reserve requirement another 50 basis points (1 basis point=0.01%) to 12.5 percent, the seventh such maneuver this year, and ten dating back to June 2006. “Deposit reserve” is a balance all retail banking institutions must maintain at the nation’s central bank, often expressed as a percentage of its total deposit. A higher reserve requirement means banks have less funds for lending or other investment projects. This latest move......

... and that is a conservative estimate, writes Bernie Leo of Shanghai Daily. We have to give it to him in the way that he succeeds to make a science out of the subject: Population figures for the city vary wildly but the latest I can find say we have 17 million permanent residents and four to five million migrants. Obviously not everyone is a spitter or expectorator. (And there is a difference. To spit......

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: Jill is an adorable three-month-old brown tabby. She was just a few days old when she and her sister, Jackie, (now adopted) were discovered by two children playing just outside their compound. Their family already consisted of a cat, dog and a new baby, their mother contacted SCAA for help to bottle feed and rehome the kittens. Unfortunately, the......

Eating with chopsticks can be tricky for those of us who first picked them up quite late in life. Even though we've been using them for a while, our frequent spillages suggest that we need to refine our chopstick wielding skills. Success in this endeavour will generate the same level of praise hitherto reserved for baby faced Channel V presenters and NBA basketball stars. We may exaggerate, but thanks to Gomestic (via Lifehacker) we have......

On the right is a powerful photo story of a 16 year old village prostitute, Ah-V, who eloped with her boyfriend Xiaowu from Guizhou to an unnamed province, and to make ends meet, Xiaowu makes Ah-V prostitute herself. Along the way, of course, Ah-V gets pregnant, and has to go for an abortion, but she is so poor that the only thing worth money in her possessions is a broken fan which she got from......

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: Jude is a one-year-old male cat found at a construction site three months ago where he had been surviving only on the scraps of food kind people left out for him. When his foster mom found him he was covered in motor oil. She took him home, but he wouldn't stop crying until she started to sing The Beatle's......

Even as the majority of the domestic and international press crowned Inner Mongolia native and Shanghai resident Duo Zirong for her courage to stop the truck and "save" 800 cats from the food trade on July 7, dissenting voices have been raised with regards to the character of this women. And some have gone so far as to call her — as we have heard recently from those involved in various animal rescue organizations —......

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: Lucky is a lovable long-haired cat. Caring for his beautiful coat and keeping your house relatively hair-free means regular brushing – which he's happy to sit still for. He's 2.5 years old, neutered and vaccinated. Lucky has earned his name – rescued after a minor car accident by kind animal lovers, he is now completely healed. He shows his......

Latest in the series of food safety scandals to rock China: the Philippine Bureau of Food and Drugs has found traces of the cancer-causing agent formaldehyde in the White Rabbit candies produced in Shanghai by the Guan Sheng Yuan Group. We must admit we were a little taken aback because the yummilicious milk candy was one of our favourites growing up several thousand miles away in Singapore! Shanghai Daily tells us that the White Rabbit......

Who is the most successful pianist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records? Who sells millions of his albums? Who was referred to as the Prince of Romance by Nancy Reagan? Whose concerts are always sold out, wherever he performs? No, this is not Jay Zhou, Justin Timberlake, or even less André Rieu, but instead the wonderful and charming French pianist Richard Clayderman. Clayderman is most probably the most has-been pianist......

Last Friday, over 800 cats were rescued in Shanghai's Xinzhuang area, where they were about to be shipped to Guangzhou to meet their maker. However, local cat lovers here in Shanghai informed the police, resulting in a stand-off between the cat-lovers and the cat meat shippers that lasted several hours. The cat meat shippers claimed that the cats were from a legit cat farm in Anhui province, and had documents to prove it; the cat-lovers......

Slow weekend for music, lucky for us the bands that are playing (Live Earth is the exception) are worth seeing. This is the weekend for concerts dedicated to raising environmental awareness, accomplished by plugging in watt hungry amps and singing about sex and beer. On Friday Recycle a pop punk band, less pop more punk, will be joined by old school punkers Loudspeaker and garage rock favorites Banana Monkey at 4Live. On Saturday PK-14 (Public......

If ever there was a time for a Chinese version of Jerry Springer, it is now. Apparently, a dog has given birth to a very cat-like puppy in Jiangyan in Jiangsu Province. The People’s Daily Online writes that experts have attributed the puppy’s appearance due to a gene mutation and, it even barks like a puppy. Shanghaiist isn't one to fall for such a ruse, though. We want to know who the real father of......

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: With all the recent talk about scary Chinese-made toothpaste, do we have a reason to be worried? Black and White Cat does a number on a test tube and unscientifically concludes: yes, if you eat it. Shanghaiist doesn't even brush, so we think we're OK. Ben Ross finishes up his one month experience working at a Fuzhou hair salon with some closing thoughts,......

Shanghaiist has had a string of bad luck in recent months when it comes to locks. Say, for example, the lock on our door which swung closed behind us one Saturday night at 3am and left us stranded outside our apartment with only a towel to cover our modesty (long story). Or, say like tonight, the Kryptonite lock on our beloved Dahon folding bike parked at the corner of HuaiHai and FenYang Rd jammed and......

We are all for this whole harmonious society thing, but when someone sent us this link on popular Chinese message board Tianya today, we couldn’t help wonder ... just what exactly is harmonious these days. We didn’t look at the images posted in the thread (we warn you, don't do it if you don't want nightmares), but they were screen captures from a video uploaded to tudou.com on March 25 (after we protested, the site......

Shanghai's bank lending soars in April "Most of the loans went to the manufacturing, water conservancy, real estate and retail and wholesale sectors," Mainland investors transfer RMB70 billion from savings to stocks until April this year. "The investment spree has aroused concern from the industry watchdog." Alleged HK insider-trading scandal draws criticism from the US "A light regulatory regime, lightning fast flows of information and gossip, plus a get-rich-quick-at-all-costs ethos make markets such as......

Chinese blogger exposes a 1994 fire that killed 288 pupils as officials fled "A local education official who organised the song and dance performance, Kuang Li, locked herself in the toilet, keeping out children who suffocated, according to Chen's blog. Kuang was jailed for four years." China and Russia accused of arming Sudan "China and Russia are supplying arms to Sudan that are being used to fuel the violence in the Darfur region in violation......

Japan Probe's post entitled "Disneyland in China?" has already received a lot of linkage since it appeared May 2. We just saw it today, so we apologize if we are telling you something you already know. (You may also have seen a story on the topic in The Standard from April.) From The Standard we learn that Beijing's state-owned Shijingshan Amusement Park boasts the slogan "Disneyland is too far" and "features a replica of......

startdrawing.org is a new (to us) site with the following mission statement: startdrawing.org is a web resource portal for Asia's artists and drawings. This site was started with the aim of showcasing and sharing drawings from talented artists in Asia, and in the process, promote the joys of drawing. The selections above were taken from the site's China section. The top item is from Shanghai-based designer Beibang (北邦), whose website is supposed to be......