Da Peng has now responded to Conan's response to his original apology by dressing up in a three-piece suit, breaking out a "Niubility" band, and redecorating his set to emulate the ginger-haired Harvard grad. We have to admit, we're a little impressed with how Da Peng dug in heels and refused to shrink from the spotlight, after Coco threw the first comedy punch last week. more ›

Conan O'Brien has responded to Da Peng's apology, and even gifts the Sohu talk show host with a new opening sequence! Coco (not very convincingly) admits that he feels bad for making Da Peng feel bad, and even trots out his own "There Was No Need to Apologize, Sorry for Making You Feel Bad" dance in response to Da Peng's Sorry Dance. more ›

All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: LA Times' journalist Barbara Demick takes questions at the PuLi, free tax law info for US Citizens (Tax info? Awesome!), British improv, and pub crawl specials for teachers. Read on for all the details, or check out our calendar for more! more ›

Last night was the first of threefive Shanghai screenings of Red Light Revolution, a film from Australian director Sam Voutas that proudly proclaims itself "China's first ever sex shop comedy." The subject matter is definitely relevant to China today, where 70% of the world's sex toys are produced, and vibrators are sold next to the checkout stand at Family Mart (of all places.) The film has been shown all over the festival circuit, and lucky for us they are now touring China after receiving a grant to host private screenings in cities all over the country. (Update: Red Light Revolution is now on iTunes!) more ›

Gaga + Old Chinese folks + Macarena = Thank you, internet. more ›

Tis the weekend for some sweaty contact sport action with the Shanghai Sevens and finally a proper mixed martial arts fight in the form of RUFF! Also, check out one of the world's best beatboxers at Zeal, a Creative Party at Kin, or improv comedy at AT Bar. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for much, much more. more ›

"My trip reminded me that we are all just animals, that stuff comes out of every hole we have, no matter where we live or how much money we've got. On some level we all know this and manage, quite pleasantly, to shove it towards the back of our minds. In China, it's brought to the front, and nailed there." more ›

Just the other day, Rush Limbaugh created a stir with his impersonation of a Pentecostal pastor President Hu Jintao. Stephen Colbert says he's "offended by Rush's cheap, insensitive rip-off of my character Ching Chong Ding Dong" and offered a translation of Limbaugh's gibberish: more ›

Now that Thanksgiving is over for another year, it’s time to turn to Christmas! Market sellers are now busy peddling decorations and shops are in full Christmas swing with decorations and music. As the festive period grows more intense, expect Yule-tide cheer to dominate most of Shanghai’s events - we even have a smattering of Christmas in this week’s Weekendist. As always, check out our Midweek Music Preview and Calendar for more events and activities. more ›

Unless you touched down in Shanghai just a few hours ago, you know that a horrific fire broke out at an apartment block in Jing’An earlier this week. To raise funds for the Shanghai Red Cross Jiaozhou Lu fund, BEAN and Kaiba are holding a fundraising event this Saturday night and your attendance/contributions would be greatly appreciated. more ›

Beyond confirming that a BBC executive in Beijing is working with a New York-based film financier on a Mandarin edition, official information on China’s version of The Office is virtually nil - yet that hasn’t stopped nay-sayers from declaring “It cannot be done!” more ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. more ›

On Thursday 3 December, Vienna Café will, as they put it, "finally will bring some good laughs to our wee cinema, to celebrate the arrival of the winter and the holiday season." The 2007 comedy Death at a funeral shows the strange and hysterical happenings taking place at what was supposed to be a dignified family gathering. more ›

Recently "Tale of 4 Cities" launched it's weekly dinner "theater" series, a Thursday cabaret evening with the vision to impart a bit of "Le Gai Paris" into Shanghai´s nightlife scene. The problem is, if you're looking for actual "theater," the show invariably will seem like it doesn't fit. It's a drag show, pure and simple - and a charming one full of social potential - so you might as well just call it by its proper name and put it in its proper genre. more ›

Funny. more ›

On an average Saturday night, the funniest thing about Racks in Xintiandi is that they charge 98RMB+ an hour for pool when most other bars let you play for free. This weekend however a former organiser of "Chopschticks" is bringing in some hot comedy talent from NYC to amuse the suckers. more ›

And now a diversion away from the earthquake news. After playing around with the actual performance date, the Asphodèles Theatre Company from Lyon, France, will perform a unique show this Thursday at Fuzhou Rd's Tianchan Yifu Theatre. Under the tag "Harlequin's trip to China," the show is part of the French and Chinese Cultural Festival called "Croisements." more ›

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So if you’ve ever fancied travelling from I’m a hot dashing dinosaur (Shanghai Indoor Stadium) to Thoroughly Hawaiian Satanists (Shanghai South Railway Station) to Drab Penguin (Nanpu Bridge) now is your chance! more ›

We attended the Chicago Improv All-Stars show at Henry's last night ... and we enjoyed ourselves. It kind of had the feel of a theme party at a friend's house (assuming that friend was very popular, brewed their own beer, had a very large living room with poorly placed pillars, was bad at training their staff and charged guests RMB 280 at the door). If you have ever seen an episode of Whose Line... more ›

See the Chicago Improv All-Stars! more ›

We weren't really keen on seeing any version of Lust, Caution, but after finally giving in and ponying up the cash at the local theater (stupid, we know), we watched the sanitized version. Our impression of the movie, sans steamy sex, was that this movie wasn't really all that it was hyped up to be. However, given that about half an hour was taken out, we suspected that we didn't just get a child-friendly film—we... more ›

More than a dozen prominent Singapore celebrities have come out in support of a new parliamentary petition to repeal Section 377A in the city-state's Penal Code which outlaws “acts of gross indecency” between men by appearing in a Youtube video uploaded recently. more ›

Tonight, for those of you who can speak Chinese or French, there is a play at the Shanghai Arts Center that we strongly recommend you to watch. It takes place at the Shanghai Drama Arts Center until July 22. more ›

Comic Paul Merton has recently been touring China, making a light hearted documentary that is currently being aired on Channel Five in the UK. If the few clips we have seen are anything to go by, then this follows the best tradition of whimsical British travelogues such as Louis Theroux's Wild Weekend. more ›

Shanghaiist reader Matt points out this passage from a recent New York Times Magazine profile of American comedian Rob Corddry: more ›

Has the destruction of Wujiang Lu got you down? Need a quick picker-upper? If so, you might think about heading down to Henry's Brewery & Grill for a nice dose of comedy to turn that frown upside down. Does Henry's sound familiar to you, oh dearest reader? That's because it will also be the host of Shanghaiist next Happy Hour. Okay, that's enough self-promoting. This isn't the first time there's been some stand-up comedy on... more ›

Xinhua reports: more ›

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. more ›

We were checking something on Alexa's traffic ranking page today and we noticed a collection of country links. We hadn't seen this before so we decided to check out the most popular websites in China. Alexa says, "This list refers to the most popular sites among users in the country, not sites hosted in the country," but it's important to note that Alexa's traffic ranking, while widely used, are definitely not without controversy. According to Alexa, "Alexa computes traffic rankings by analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users." Shanghaiist is not an Alexa Toolbar user — we can't be, because we are not Windows users, and if we were, we wouldn't use Internet Explorer. So, you see the numbers are a little skewed, but for China they might be pretty accurate, since everyone uses Windows and IE. Although we have no clue how many Chinese internet users use the Alexa Toolbar. Anyway, here's the Top 10: more ›