The gumboot dancers from Kliptown, South Africa are back in Shanghai this weekend raising money for the Kliptown Youth Program. After an incredibly successful event last year, Cocktails for Kliptown is coming back to Cotton's tomorrow for an evening of dance, drinks, barbecue, and a dinner date auction! Come out and support a community program benefiting youth in one of South Africa's poorest townships. more ›

This weekend's chock full of exciting events of every variety! The gumboot dancers from Kliptown, South Africa are back at Cotton's for another big event, Red Light Revolution - "China's first sex shop comedy" - screens twice, G+ hosts a Singles Day Party, City Moments turns 3, and 100 professional salsa dancers will perform for the Chinese-Korean Salsa Festival! Read on for all the details, or check out our calendar for even more! more ›

The Kliptown Youth Program gumboot dancers from South Africa are returning to China this year after an amazingly successful first tour last October. They've expanded their numbers and scope in anticipation of this year's schedule, and will be performing at multiple events in Shanghai and Bejing in the coming weeks. We absolutely insist you try to make it out in support of them wherever possible. Not only will you be supporting disadvantaged youth from a struggling township, but going by last year, you're guaranteed plenty of rhythm, dance, and fun. more ›

Over the weekend, savvy buyers headed over to Cotton's on Xinhua Lu for the city's first closet swap. In the days leading up to the inaugural event, shoppers stopped by the William the BeeKeeper boutique to exchange their gently-used clothes for tickets. Come Saturday, all people had to do was show up, tickets ready in hand, and rummage through the stacks of clothing. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. more ›

BEAN is calling all eagle-eyed photographic bounty-hunters in Shanghai to team up for the Great Shanghai Photo Scavenger Hunt. All you need to join is some kind of photography device and two or three friends. more ›

Perhaps you're tired of all the close ups of Kate's perfect button nose. Perhaps you wish death on people who argue her manicure shade is "ivory" and not "pearlescent snow". Or perhaps you're just really bitter you didn't get an invite to the wedding and the Beckhams did. The point is, if you don't plan on getting in on the royal wedding celebrations in any one of these ways, there is also this party alternative: more ›

You know what they say...one man's trash is another man's treasure. Now's the time to do a bit of spring cleaning and clear out some of your unwanted, gently-used clothes because the good people at the William the BeeKeeper boutique are putting together the first annual Shanghai Closet Swap on May 14th. more ›

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This is an advertisement. Our wonderful sponsors help keep stories on our website and food on our plates. Let's give them some love, shall we? more ›

This is an advertisement. Our wonderful sponsors help keep stories on our website and food on our plates. Let's give them some love, shall we? more ›

This is an advertisement. Our wonderful sponsors help keep stories on our website and food on our plates. Let's give them some love, shall we? more ›

This is an advertisement. Our wonderful sponsors help keep stories on our website and food on our plates. Let's give them some love, shall we? more ›

If energetic dance, vibrant rhythms and supporting an organization that brings positive change to disadvantaged youth are your thing, then head to Cotton's Xinhua branch tomorrow night for a gumboot dance performance to be remembered. more ›

In Shanghaiist's Philanthropist feature, we highlight individuals and groups doing interesting things to make the world a little bit of a better place. This week we talk to Shelley Bragg of Eat So They Can whose Cocktails for a Cause event this coming Saturday is helping youth in South Africa rise above the pitfalls created by poverty. more ›

This is an advertisement. Our wonderful sponsors help keep stories on our website and food on our plates. Let's give them some love, shall we? more ›

This is an advertisement. Our wonderful sponsors help keep stories on our website and food on our plates. Let's give them some love, shall we? more ›

Restaurant proprietor Cotton Ding has done such a good job with her establishments that people were inspired to document her life and offer her awards for having the best personality in F&B. So when she announced she would be opening a restaurant, showcasing authentic versions of her local cuisine (Hunan), I had to check it out. more ›

The team of Adam (lumber baron) and Griff (Haibao trader) proved too mighty last night at the Shanghaiist Scrabble Happy Hour at Cotton's on Xinhua Lu. The duo rode fancy words such as "saltpeter" and "xeroxing" to a record-setting win. Nine-hundred-and-forty-six points! That's a lot of 2-for-1 beverages. For their efforts, Adam and Griff get to share an RMB 250 Cotton's gift certificate. Check out some "action" photos! more ›

As you may have heard, the gig at LOgO last weekend was shut down, and this weekend, the police are continuing to make their presence felt ahead of the Shanghai Expo. Jake Newby writes:

Last night at around half past nine, police showed up at Yuyintang and told them the planned gig for that night (local folk artist Wu Ji) would not be going ahead. No real reason was given, they simply asked to speak to the manager and asked to see the venue's licenses. Audience members (there were around 20-30 people there at the time, not a huge crowd) were told that the gig was cancelled and that they needed to leave the venue. The authorities then confiscated equipment from Yuyintang - the cash tills and everything from the sound desk, including the computer. Tonight's Pinkberry EP release has been "postponed" according to a notice from the band, though they will still be at the venue at 9pm tonight to give out postcards and to meet any disappointed fans who show up expecting a gig. more ›

We know where you're gonna be tonight. Or at least, we know where we hope you're going to be tonight: at Shanghaiist Scrabble having a drink and making ten dollar words on our shiny Shanghaiist-specific scrabble board! Yes, after a month of waiting, Scrabble night is here again, so come on over to Cotton's and prove yourself the cunningest linguist in the city. more ›

Oops, so we had meant to post the winners of our Shanghaiist Scrabble happy hour earlier last week... but, well, holidays called. It's a shame, because this last time was a doozy. Not only did we manage to use up all our Shanghaiist Scrabble tiles before the end of the night, but our winners got the highest score ever reached so far: 372. None of their words were particularly large scorers; nope, these guys won through sheer persistence, coming up to our Scrabble board 14 times in the two-and-a-half hours they were there. more ›

Can you believe we've had three of these already? We barely can. Nor can we wrap our minds around the fact that this will be the last Shanghaiist Scrabble of the year... nay, the decade! So, if you happen to be around Shanghai tonight, come out and join us for a fun wintry Scrabble match. We've got warm drinks, good music, a sweet fireplace, and - of course - a way to exercise that big, big brain of yours one last time before you lose your mind for the end of 2009. more ›

It's that time of the month again. No, we're not talking about that time of the month: it's time for Shanghaiist Scrabble! Luckily, the last Tuesday of this month falls on the 29th during the anticipatory lull between Christmas and New Year's: it's the perfect time to reminisce on all the fun we've had in the past year, and what better place to do that than in front of Cotton's cozy fireplace? Come down and share a few drinks with us as we remember all the crazy parties, ridiculous stories, and good times we've had in 2009. Plus, if you're good enough at Scrabble, you just might win 250 RMB worth of Cotton's drinks! more ›

Last night's Shanghaiist Scrabble was full of warmhearted, frenetic spelling: players scrambled to push their way to the board to capture coveted double letter and triple word scores as others sat with old friends and new Scrabblemates, drinking and trying to think of words that could possibly combine two F's and a Q. In the end, Liz managed to blow away the competition with "PSEUDONYM," catching the elusive and coveted Quadruple Word Score, a Shanghaiist Scrabble exclusive, for a whopping 76 points. Congrats to Liz on winning a 250 RMB gift certificate to Cotton's, which, of course, you can use at the next Shanghaiist Scrabble night! more ›

Does the fact that China doesn't have scrabble get your goat? Does the fact that Craig Beevers won the UK's national Scrabble championship AGAIN and you know you could take him down bother you? Have you ever wanted to battle with the Shanghaiist editors in a match of lexicons? more ›

We've got a whole new bag of tricks to spice up our semi-monthly Shanghaiist Happy Hour at Cotton's. Well, technically, it's a bag of tiles- Scrabble tiles. After searching in vain for a game of Scrabble and only finding Maonopoly sets, we decided that we would maverick it and just make our own. And since we all know how witty and clever Shanghaiist readers are, we'd like to cordially invite you to join us next Tuesday, October 27 for the first monthly Shanghaiist Scrabble night! more ›

This weekend seems to be a strong mix of intellectual stimulation coupled with a healthy dose of partying. First off, you probably know already, but the JZ Music Festival will run this entire weekend. After Dee Dee Bridgewater rocks it at Yunfeng Theater tonight, the festival will bring together a host of different artists and bands for a huge gathering in Century Park on Saturday and Sunday. Besides that, there will also be a multitude of speakers coming to Shanghai (to discuss controversial theories about China's past and what its future will look like), and we'll celebrate the birthdays of one of our favorite bar spots (Cotton's!), one of Shanghai's funnest DJ groups (Uprooted Sunshine!) and the start of a Shanghai chapter for one of our favorite charitable initiatives during college (Habitat for Humanity!). more ›

With a mere forty-eight hours before the National Day celebration, we figured we'd throw a little surprise party of our own. Come down to Cotton's tonight and celebrate Shanghaiist's "we-hope-we-also-make-it-to-sixty" happy hour party! We're going to party like it's 1949, kick some traditional Chinese jams, and dance the night away with National Day drinking fervor. And like always, two for one drinks until ten! more ›

Yes, there have been a couple hiccups with our original plans to have semi-monthly Shanghaiist Happy Hours, but with the weather cooling off into nice, comfortable weeknights, we're ready to get back on schedule. more ›

Philadelphia's Brian Seymour (MySpace) will once again be performing an acoustic set of his original music on Tuesday, June 23 at Cotton's on Xinhua Lu during the Shanghaiist Happy Hour, which runs from 6 to 10 p.m. Seymour is in town doing a series of shows at the House of Blues & Jazz — it's called "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and he's playing, naturally, the piano and singing the music of Tom Waits. For us, he'll be playing guitar and performing songs from his albums. more ›