Beijing University, the bastion of academic excellence, has the cutest proctor we've ever seen: Academia Cat! A student on Beida's forums posted a topic on "Beida's most respectable cat," who apparently enrolled in 2004, and has been sleeping on student's desks and catwalking on teacher's podiums ever since. Apparently, Academia cat enjoys staring for long periods at people, and listening to lectures on Thoreau's Transcendentalism. Adorable! Source: Sina more ›

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's favorite adopted animal charity. more ›

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  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.”
  
  


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  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.”
  
  


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  Shanghai GM to launch Buick LaCrosse hybrid prior to Olympic Games
  
  
  “The move will make Shanghai GM the third joint venture automaker to deliver a hybrid vehicle in China following Toyota and Honda. Toyota Motor Corp is currently the only carmaker that builds a hybrid car in China.”


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  China Eastern to resume Shanghai-Saipan flights
  
  
  “China Eastern will resume its twice weekly Shanghai-Saipan flights starting Jan. 11, 2006, close to five months after the charter flights were suspended because of the decline of tourists coming in from China.”
  
  


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  China to survey dialects to better protect them | World | Reuters
  
  
  “A focus will be the Shanghai dialect … ‘As more and more young people in Shanghai use the dialect to communicate online, and as its vocabulary expands, it will be standardised and promoted as a distinct local language.’”
  
  


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  China’s New Bestseller: The Bible
  “Amity has churned out 41 million Bibles for Chinese believers at its plant outside … Nanjing, including more than 3 million copies last year. (About nine million copies have been exported to Africa, other parts of Asia and Central Europe.)”
• 5 nabbed in whisky sting
  “Police have arrested five people alleged to have duped a Swedish man into paying nearly 5,000 yuan ($680) for coffee and whisky during a recent business trip to the city.”
• Cyclists to race to top of city’s tallest tower on December 31
  “One contestant, Zhang Jincheng, the Guinness record keeper, is a 23-year-old from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. His two challengers are 28-year-old Andorran Xavi Casas and 34-year-old Colombian Javier Zapata.”


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  City tightens protection for historic buildings
  
  
  “The city government issued new rules last week banning road expansion on most of the 144 downtown roads lined with historic houses. The rules also ban tall buildings from being built in conservation areas.”
  
  


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  blognation China
  
  
  China tech blog worth checking out.
  
  


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  China Web2.0 Review
  
  
  Another China tech blog.


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  China: Pollution map of China released
  
  
  “Just over a year since their first mashup was released, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, headed by journalist-environmentalist Ma Jun, has just released its Air Pollution Map, complete with its own BBS and space for feedback forum.”
  
  


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  Todd Crowned China’s Sole Survivor
  “The 22-year-old flight attendant and world-class schemer outwitted, outplayed and outlasted his competitors for 39 days to be crowned the $1 million winner of the reality show’s 15th edition and the youngest winner in the series’ history.” 15!
• Three Beijing buildings on Time magazine’s best list
  “Three architectures in Beijing are on the list of 10 best architectural marvels (new and upcoming) selected by the Time magazine to be published on the Dec. 24.” None from Shanghai.

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... more ›

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... more ›

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: more ›

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,... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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. more ›

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 is a part of Beijing’s continuing effort to rein in excess liquidity (and the attending inflation) and slow down what appears to be an overheating economy. The People’s Bank of China has also raised interest rates four times this year for a total of 108 basis points. Currently, a one year savings account will net you somewhere around 3.6 percent. So far, China has favored a gradual approach in tightening its monetary policy, with frequent but modest tinkering along the way. But with inflation still soaring at 4 percent (or more, have you been to Carrefour lately), one has to wonder if the PBoC dropped the ball somewhere. Was there ever a time (or perhaps even now), a more drastic measure would have been more appropriate? There doesn’t appear to be any sense of urgency in fighting inflation coming out of the PBoC and a general lack of concern/appreciation for risk in China, very troubling indeed. more ›

... and that is a conservative estimate, writes Bernie Leo of Shanghai Daily. more ›

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA:
more ›

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 found the definitive seven step guide to becoming a chopstick maven. more ›

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 a rag-and-bone dealer for RMB10. As a result, because she couldn't pay for her hospital bed, they put her on drip by the door of her home. more ›

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: more ›

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 — more of a psychopath hoarder than a cat saviour. more ›

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA: more ›

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! more ›

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. more ›

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 claim these were forged. The Chinese reports mention that some of the cats were quite dirty while others had collars, which in their eyes proved that the cats were captured. In the end, word of the situation spread through the internet and the stand-off, which started around 10pm and lasted until the wee hours of the night, was resolved with the cat-lovers collecting around 10,000 RMB and buying the freedom of the cats. Read the Chinese reports and take a look at some pictures here and here. more ›

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 Kingdom for Teens) an amazing post-punk band from Beijing marks their return to Shanghai for the first time in over 1 1/2 years with two shows. Celebrating their launch of environmentally-inspired tees (proceeds of which will go to charity) the clothing shop ENO gets things rocking at 4pm with July 16th a garage rock band from Nanjing, Boojii the Shanghai Shoegazer band and the cat's meaow....PK-14. For those who can't get enough of them at the afternoon show (that should be everyone!), PK-14 will also be playing Saturday night at the Dream Factory. If great post-punk music isn't your thing then plenty of cheesy pop music will be available at the official Live Earth concert being held under the Oriental Pearl Tower (not exactly the most environmentally friendly of buildings). more ›

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 the litter is. If you have any information as to what feline felon fathered this kittenuppy, contact us immediately! more ›

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: more ›

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). more ›

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 deleted the video today, but you can still see a small captured image on the uploader's profile.) This user, named "fenluodeiren" posted a video named "黑白双杀" (or "killing white and black"), which basically is about how four guys, allegedly from Hunan, skinned one black and one white cat while they were ALIVE! more ›

"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." more ›