It's time once again for Shanghai's only favorite music + arts festival! And you can be part of it this year if you fancy yourself savvy with a camera. This year JUE Festival is teaming up with fashion brand ospop to launch the JUE Next Generation Photo Competition. Not only will they showcase a selection of 15 winners as part of the festival, they're also offering a cash prize of 10,000RMB to the winning photographer, and 3,000RMB to the runner-up! more ›

Hey this is kinda cute - Sherpa's is holding another competition and offering one grand in Sherpa's vouchers for the winner! All you have to do is take their logo and Halloween-ize it. 1000RMB for the winner, 500RMB runner up, 300RMB for third place. See example to the right. more ›

Last weekend 15 teams totaling 60 competitors gathered for the National Bodybuilding Invitational in Fuyang, Anhui. Besides the fact that China HAS a national bodybuilding circuit, the most surprising thing to me is that the trend of bronzing also made its way into the land of skin bleaching, parasols, visors, and this lady. Apparently this is done to bring more contrast to muscles under bright lights (thanks, Google) and I'm guessing this stuff washes right off. more ›

If your dream is to become a game designer and you’re looking for your lucky break, this is it! Shanghai Game Jam is a free event that invites 50 participants (of any skill level) to sign up, team up, and compete against each other to create their own original game by the end of the two day event—folding beds and meals provided. more ›

Things have quieted down a bit after all the monster names played Shanghai last week. This weekend has a massive dose of rock, and in any way you take it. Chinese punk, Japanese metal, and New Zealand indie rock, just to name a few! Read on for highlights, or check out our calendar for more! more ›

We're too much of pansies to navigate the Shanghai streets by bike ourselves, but if you're an avid city cyclist with a penchant for competitiveness, check out this crazy little race we came across: Shanghai Alleycat. more ›

We knew Russians were a big fan of Eurovision, that cheesy but extremely popular songfest that pits various European and Eurasian nations against each other in a country-by-country sing off, but we didn't realize how much. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is now urging China to join a song competition of its own - this time between Russia, them and other Central Asian nations. more ›

The competition to open for Wu-tang Clan's Ghostface Killah rages on! If you're curious about the hopefuls trying out their rhymes andbattlin' it out for the spot at his Shanghai show, head over to Splitworks' Douban site. We've got seven aspiring rappers right now with Ne Zha's "Rude of Us" and bLow mc's "Money Make the World Go Round" heading the pack. Feel like you've got the chops to kick them out of the running? You've still got til June 9th to lay down your best moves. Ghostface Killah will be playing at Zhijiang Dream Factory on June 14. more ›

Apparently the ambitious Pepsi Battle of the Bands is actually turning into a right old crap fest. The upcoming reality show, which was supposed to prop “underground” rock bands into the mainstream as a way of “encouraging young people's passions” has instead annoyed and alienated anyone who bothered to participate. more ›

Calling all debonair designers with a flair for competition - this is the last week you can enter the Shanghai-based chapter of Cut&Paste, a contest for digital artists interested in showing off their artistic chops under pressure. more ›

Looks like Pepsi Co.'s bringing that old tradition of “Battle of the Bands” to China in a big way - the soft drink maker is hosting a mega reality show and its inviting all Chinese “underground” rock bands to participate. more ›

Starbucks has launched a new brand of coffee grown in Yunnan Province in southwest China called South of the Clouds, the meaning of Yunnan (云南) in Chinese. Martin Coles, president of Starbucks Coffee International, told AP that his goal is to bring Chinese coffee not just to China but to the world: "Ultimately I'd love to see our coffees from China feature on the shelves of every one of our stores in 49 countries around the world." more ›

In honor of the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai’s #1 fag hag scoured the city for info on gay sports. Everyone knows a large gay contingent can be found daily at our most popular gyms. However, did you realize Shanghai also hosts gay swimming (we’re sure Michael Phelps or Zhang Lin are welcome), badminton, table tennis, volleyball and even kungfu! more ›

Washington Post writes that while Shanghai has the global industry, business and sophistication stemming from early European colonialism, Beijing has the upper hand, at least in this round. The two reasons: the government and the Olympics. The historic city of emperors, modern capital and center of CCP power, Beijing's status as China's political hub is undeniable. As for the Olympics, for all the hassle (most recently here, here and here) they cause, they bring major opportunities to a city that is preparing to bask in the spotlight. The projected intensity of the global gaze only increases after Monday's announcement that this year's games will, for the first time, be streamed online in real time. more ›

This weekend is the next stop for Olympics hopefuls at the Gymnastics World Cup stop in Shanghai. The action begins tomorrow with the preliminary competition, which will determine the eight finalists that will compete on the four apparatuses for the women and six for the men. Since this is a World Cup event, there will be no all-around competition. Tomorrow's preliminary competition will be followed by the event finals on Saturday and Sunday. With the... more ›

Although the Olympic Games are over a year away, a preview of what's to come next summer has arrived in Shanghai this week. Shanghai is the host for this year's Chinese National Gymnastics Championships, featuring some of China's best and brightest gymnasts. China's men's team AND women's team are the defending World Champions. The preliminary competitions finished up last weekend, with the team finals finishing today and tomorrow, and the individual competitions (all-around final and... more ›

"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." more ›

This year, the concert series "Piano aux Jacobins" is happening again, and the jazz pianist who they are bringing this time is Jacky Terrasson, who won the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in 1993. The competition, which is limited to participants under 30 years old, is among the most illustrious in the world, as winners and finalists often are offered record deals immediately which springboard their career. This was certainly the case with Terrasson, who was signed to Blue Note Records after winning the festival and has since continued performing and touring the world with the best musicians in jazz. more ›

Shanghaiist has a lot of guys on the staff (for a reason we just can't fathom — we really want more female contributors). So, naturally, a tip posted in our Shanghaiist Forums about Shanghai playing host to an International "Miss Bikini" Competition caught our attention. more ›

Torontoist immediately wins our heart by using the word "Jackass" in a headline. In fact, we love their use of it so much that we're going to use it as much as possible throughout this post. For example, it looks like there are Toronto-area jackasses besides those who misuse the sidewalk: look at the crap on sale on Toronto's craigslist. But it looks like Toronto doesn't contain the kind of jackasses who pee in public pools, as the issue never came up when they interviewed the creators of art installations in their public wading pools. more ›

The death mentioned above is not an isolated incident. The government has introduced "measures" to stop minors playing violent games. There is no news whether it is also discouraging minors to play a recently released anti-Japanese game. Gotta get 'em young, eh? more ›