Here's more on the DaVinci media extortion case to which real estate mogul Pan Shiyi recently alluded to. The Singapore-based furniture company has accused a CCTV journalist by the name of Li Wenxue (李文学) of fabricating his reports and extorting 1 million yuan from the firm. Ho Aili, Beijing correspondent of the Straits Times, writes: more ›

"I look at the DaVinci case and I'm reminded of something that happened over a decade ago. At that time, we were often extorted by the media. They'd often say to us: The negative reports we have prepared for you have all been typeset and are ready for print. Bring your ad dollars in exchange for them. We were miserable. Eventually we published two books in which we detailed all our mistakes, customer complaints and criticisms from other industry insiders -- and the extorting journalists stopped appearing." more ›

DaVinci, the furniture chain that was accused of labelling its locally sourced products as being "Made in Italy" and which later ran one nightmare of a press conference, has closed all four of its outlets in Shanghai. more ›

"...[S]ome local furniture dealers have withdrawn claims that their products are fully imported, admitting to Shanghai Daily that the furniture was in fact made in China or other developing countries. In an outlet of Yuexing Homes in Jing'an District, Shanghai Daily found that sales personnel no longer said their products were fully imported. Sales persons for several brands, such as Duke York, Mahogany, and Lucca Magic, all said that their products were produced either on the Chinese mainland or in Indonesia. Executives from France-based Roche Bobois said in Shanghai yesterday that they have suffered considerable loss recently, as most new clients canceled their orders after the DaVinci scandal. The company wouldn't disclose the size of the losses." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Since national broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) aired a report alleging that "Made in Italy" products sold at luxury furniture retailer DaVinci are actually made in China, the company, which retails such top brands as Armani Casa, Fendi Casa and Versace Home, has become a target of national scorn. more ›

Remember that really lavish art deco living room set you bought? The one imported all the way from Italy? Yeah, turns out there's a good chance it wasn't actually made in Italy, and probably came from a warehouse just down the street. CCTV recently reported that Davinci, a furniture manufacturer whose products are all listed as being "Made in Italy", have in fact been producing their products in China and then sending them back to Italy, only to then import them back into the China in order to obtain an ‘import certificate’. more ›

Another week, another edition of Shanghaiist Reads. SH and Shanghai Talk are on the clock … more ›

How many times have you found yourself sitting around your living room just itching to attend a local expo? Didn't think so. Well, for those out there who are interested, get those reading glasses ready. If the previously mentioned Sex Expo ("Sexpo"?) isn't quite your cup of naughty tea, then perhaps this might better suit your uptight needs. As reported last week in Shanghai Daily, the 2006 Shanghai Book Fair will be held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center (the former site of Jewish millionaire Silas Hardoon's Old Shanghai garden estate) from August 5 to 11. more ›

Though it's not like any of you care, since any movie that can break Spider-Man 2's box office record in the US is damn well going to be showing up on DVD here (it might have, already?) The New Zealand press reports: more ›

Shanghaiist was never a good cheater -- we raised the hand that had the history of the American Civil War scribbled on it to hail the teacher over. Chinese students, on the other hand, are much more adept and much more high-tech about it. However, remember that these things do backfire. more ›

Shanghaiist is pretty sure that this has something to do with the Da Vinci Code fever that swept the world in the last few years. While not many Chinese will lay claim to being descendants of the Son of God (making them descendants of God as well!), there are quite a number that could possibly be descendants of another thinker. One was the son of a virgin and the other was born out of wedlock, but you can never judge a man by his origins. Confucius did all right by himself, as we reported earlier. But some of you, especially those surnamed Kong, are not going to be satisfied until you know that you are definitely descendants of Confucius. Well, 1,000 RMB is all that is standing between you and an answer. You can take a DNA test and find out: more ›

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. more ›

Something's definitely afoot in the smoky backrooms of Zhongnanhai and the smoke-free and spooky chambers of the Vatican: China is pulling The Da Vinci Code off screens nationwide. So far, there is no official reason, just conjectures. The Scotsman said that it had something to do with Beijing's relations to the Vatican: more ›

video clip entitled "巴士阿叔, Bus Uncle" on YouTube. more ›

This unhealthy obsession with movies is going to stop soon ... but first, we just have to tell you what we just heard. more ›

It's been an eventful few weeks on the movie front as we dodge the shitty movies that get thrown at us left and right. Chinese audiences weren't too keen on The Da Vinci Code, in part because most of the people who had gone to see it had already read the book, and the plot of the movie hewed so closely to the book that there was little suspense as to what the conclusion would be. Oh well, at least we have the 9th Shanghai International Film Festival (Jun 17-25) to look forward to. Or not -- we've never been before. Several years ago, we went to buy tickets, but quickly lost heart after we saw the huge lines. Movie theater etiquette aside, we see no real point in spending that much dough when films like The Passenger are readily available at your local DVD shop -- every day is a film festival in Shanghai! more ›

Getting paper tickets has always freaked us out a bit since we're pretty forgetful -- and e-tickets are so much more convenient anyway. Now it seems all we have to worry about now is forgetting our phone, because Shanghai has gone ahead and decided to sell movie tickets on mobile phones. These tickets will include the time, place and name of the movie that you're going to watch, and you just have to bring your phone and have it scanned in order to enter the movie theater. The report says that this service started on May 16, so it's not likely that you know anyone who has done it yet, but one thing's for sure -- all these high tech conveniences won't really matter to the 200 million people living on less than 1 US dollar a day in China. Anyway, here's one of the websites where you can buy tickets -- and they seem to have The Da Vinci Code tickets for sale for the release of the film on Friday. more ›

Photo by monkeyking taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos "shanghaiist". Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›