Shaoxing Lu's OV Gallery became the first art space to be completely shut down by the Culture Bureau since 2000 on Friday, thanks to an apparently controversial exhibition about "re-visioning history.
OV Gallery shut down over Re-Visioning History show
Has Yu Yin Tang finally gone down?
Just when you think that everything is starting to turn rosy for Shanghai's live music scene, something comes along that hits you like a kick in the teeth.
Jay-Z: From Marcy to Hongkou Stadium? We'll see ...
We hear the voices everywhere we go in Shanghai. "Yo, I heard Jay-Z's gonna be in Shanghai" ... "Jay-Z is on October 23rd" ... "Hov will be in Shanghai for a show and maybe even try to open up a 40/40 Club (He's got one in Singapore, he can fly his private jet to the Middle Kingdom easily)." Yes, the rumors of the Jiggaman coming to town are out (we told you about it back in August) ... But is Young Hov REALLY coming to town?
Who has the Culture Bureau's stamp of approval?
Even if Robbie Williams decides not to come to Shanghai, at least we know it's not because he didn't receive the requisite approval from the Culture Bureau. We hadn't seen these until they showed up on our RSS reader -- copies of the documents from the Culture Bureau granting permission to foreign acts to come to Shanghai. For example, here's the one for Williams, which specifies when he's to come and perform, and how many people are allowed to come total. This is what the Chinese document looks like:
Notes from the (unlicensed) Underground
…and of course, what post is complete without (more) shameless self-promotion?
Tang Hui forced to cancel all live rock music
This morning, via Micah's blog, we learned of this posting on Rockself.com:

