Last weekend, we told you that Yahoo! is now apologizing for not telling the full truth to Congress at the February 2006 hearing where Yahoo! was taken to task for its role in the conviction of Chinese journalist Shi Tao. Now both Republicans and Democrats have launched scathing attacks on Yahoo. San Mateo Democrat Tom Lantos has called Yahoo "moral pygmies", and New Jersey Republican Chris Smith compared Yahoo’s cooperation with the Chinese government to......

Saw this Saturday night at Yinghua Bowl, our Shanghai bowling alley of choice (yes, we went bowling on a Saturday night). Here is what the text of the sign says: 请妥善保管好您的物品 遗失本馆概不负责 Please take care of your belongs. We are not responsible for any of your losses. Does the image — some kind of bowling barbarian hoarding his pelts, "ancient" bowling pins and balls and, of course, one human skull — make any sense to......

Don't blame China for Myanmar [LA Times] These are supposed to be humbling times for foreign policy analysts -- chaos in Iraq having made it harder to cast the United States as omnipotent, omniscient and self-actualizing. But judging by the reactions to the recent protests in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the commentariat hasn't stopped ascribing otherworldly powers to ambitious governments. 'Made in India' rising to challenge China: report [AFP] "Made in India" could be......

We had a good laugh when we saw this "patriotic" banner by Chinese blogger Xiucai ("秀才") which reads: "Joyfully welcome the 17th Party Congress, building a harmonious society together. Xiucai is a good comrade. This site has temporarily shut down comments and forum features." [h/t to Rebecca Mackinnon] The truth is, as the 17th Party Congress looms closer, Chinese bloggers have been having anything but a party. MacKinnon also points us to an excellent post......

China hurting in world opinion polls [China Post] In a survey covering 18 countries which account for 56 percent of the world's population, 38 percent said China can be trusted to act responsibly while 52 percent said the country can't be trusted. Letter accuses China's party of drift [Los Angeles Times] A rare open letter signed by 17 former top officials and conservative Marxist scholars ahead of a key party meeting accuses China's top......

Lost Laowai brings our attention to the following soundbyte of a conversation between an Air China pilot and the control tower of the JFK Airport in New York. In it, the pilot fails to understand anything that the traffic controller was saying and his English was so garbled that he might as well have been speaking in Esperanto -- a language that is deemed so important that China Radio International's website has a version in......

For those of you using Feedburner to manage your RSS feeds and wondering why you haven't been able to read any of your favourite blogs, it looks like it might have been GFW'ed. CNet Asia's Little Red Blog says the Feedburner block was only temporary, but we're still unable to access any of our feeds at http://feeds.feedburner.com. It also recommends that we check out FeedSky, which it says is China's number one RSS feed service,......

Back in April we did a post on the top ten books favored by the users of Douban.com, a book review and recommendation site. Since that time, tastes have changed and new books have been released so it's about time to take a new look at the site's top ten: JK Rowlings - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (Does this need an explanation?) Han Han - "The Glorious Day I" (Magical realism from Shanghai......

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: The TIME China Blog can't help but think of the beyond-terrific HBO series "The Wire" after hearing about the Chinese government's decision to shut down 180 food production centers. Will this decision signal real change in food quality and safety, or is it just akin to the authorities trying to put some "dope on the table for the 6 o'clock news?" So Yi......

The blog Lost Laowai has started a group writing project called "If I Knew Then What I Know Now." The general idea is for other bloggers to write about what they thought about China before actually moving out here and how different the reality actually is. Once the writer has finished the post, he/she can notify Lost Laowai and have it put up on the consolidated submission list for everyone's reading pleasure. For a while......

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,......

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. Highlights include a visit to Mr Woo who makes amazing robots out of rubbish, much to the frustration of his long suffering wife.......

Our weekly round-up of some of the highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: The Opposite End of China is in Kashgar and has the wicked picture of a sandstorm below to show for it. Positive Solutions comments on some Olympic affairs, leading with the dissing of the '08 Olympic torch run by Taiwan's Olympic Committee. He offers a good way for Taipei to make a winning statement without looking foolish. Meanwhile, the Olympic team up in......

Last Friday, Shanghaiist attended a conference which was, for all intents and purposes, about how to push products to the Chinese populace and maximize profits in this gold rush. Weasely marketing types abounded, frantically and forcibly pelleting their business cards upon us whilst spewing their “bottom-line is king” rhetoric. Every other word out of their mouths was either ‘opportunity’, ‘growth’, ‘potential’ or ‘profit’. Scary stuff. Dizzy with offense (the keynote speech was an hour-long commercial......

It seems that charming Shanghai has become the creative and commercial object of affection for yet another famous Tom (after Cruise and Friedman, of course) and is now featured as one of the backdrops for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The fourth title in the Splinter Cell series is newly available on the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, and the PC, and bears the name and coveted approval of noted author, bass fisherman and Sith......

We'd heard a lot of hype about Hong Kong director Johnnie To's (杜棋峰) new film Exiled (放逐), not least of all because it was one of three Chinese language films that competed at the Venice Film Festival (against new works by Jia Zhangke and Tsai Ming-liang). We just watched the DVD, and if ultraviolent action and stylish gunplay is your thing, then this is the movie to watch. The plot is simple: 1998 Macau, right......

GigShanghai: Booty, 'touching guitars' and Supergirl?!?...

An article from Interfax tells of a Southern Metropolitan Daily opinion piece that was written in response to the Ministry of Health Mao Qun'an's comments to the effect that the media was covering medical and health issues irresponsibly by creating reports that are unbalanced and unobjective. Well, the folks at Southern took issue to that, but of course, replying to accusations from an official is not for the squeamish, so they worded their reply quite......

Bank of China's IPO is hot.On the other end of China's state banks, the Agricultural Bank of China is not hot. At all.Shortly after deciding not to label China a currency manipulator, the US welcomed news that the yuan passed the big 8.0 mark, the highest since last July's revaluation.Bloomberg offers interesting commentary on strategic reasons behind the US decision not to label China a currency manipulator, and a new strategy that may be used......

Tim Kao, musician...

Mercer Human Resource Consulting just released its annual standard of living report, which ranks the quality of life in the world's major big cities. Shanghaiist has kept up the results the last few years, and there haven't been any major changes. Bloomberg reports: Zurich, the home of UBS AG, Europe's biggest bank by assets, is "the world's top city for quality of life," Mercer said in the report. Baghdad was "the least attractive city for......

See a movie in a Shanghai theater for 3 kuai. Twenty four digital cinemas have opened in Shanghai, but the story doesn't mention where any of them are.More talk of a Shanghai taxi fare hike.Shanghai's streets are safe for kids! (Only when compared to Beijing and Guangzhou -- "the annual death toll from traffic accidents in 5.8 people for every 100,000 children in Shanghai, compared with 7 in Beijing and 8.9 in Guangzhou.")IKEA thinking about......

As if you needed us to tell you, it's Oscar night morning. We have one eye on the TV right now -- Dragon TV, and at least one other local network -- are showing a "live"[1] feed of the red carpet coverage from E! (with Chinese commentary). Why not watch on our satellite? Because it never freakin' works. CCTV usually replays the Oscars Monday evening, although we haven't found confirmation of that online yet (anyone......

Michael Ohlsson, underground DJ...

We don't remember exactly how we stumbled upon this photo diary of food in Shanghai, but we're glad we did. It's a colorful look at some of what the city has to offer. It's not just Shanghainese food (that would be silly ... there is so much variety in Shanghai) and it is far from comprehensive (that would be next to impossible), but it is worth a look. And the guy who took the photos,......

Shanghaiist greeted the news that Zhang Yimou had gone back to making touching humanistic films set in the backwaters of China with some trepidation. We hope, after the disappointment of Hero and the even more atrocious House of Flying Daggers that Zhang has gotten this whole slick martial arts fantasia thing out of his system, like Michael Jordan and his minor league baseball lark. Zhang even managed to get veteran Japanese actor Takakura Ken for......

Fortunately, .06% of America's oil supply is now safe from communism's evil grasp, and America has again proven that it is still and always will be the best country in the universe. That's right, America has successfully convinced CNOOC to drop its bid for Unocal -- the company realized that due to American political opposition, CNOOC had a better chance of getting Taiwan to reunite with the Mainland than successfully purchase an American company.    Shanghaiist tried really really hard......