As we mentioned earlier this week, the Ted Koppel special "The People's Republic of Capitalism" is currently airing on the Discovery Channel in the U.S. For those of you who can't wait for the bittorrent, here are some clips from the series, most of which was filmed in Chongqing. The People's Republic of Capitalism: The American and Chinese economies are irreversibly intertwined. Not to rub it in or anything, but this particular Shanghaiist is currently......

With a 600-year long history, Kunqu (崑曲) opera is one of the oldest extant forms of the Chinese opera and known as the "mother" of a hundred operas. Although dozens of professional Kunqu troupes used to operate across China, only a handful remain today in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chenzhou and Yongjia. Kunqu has been awarded the title of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO, which also recognises that the......

This week, we bring you a documentary called "Asian Cinema Odyssey - China" which was screened on Discovery Channel (although others say it's from National Geographic) . We can't seem to find any other information about this documentary (so let us know if you do find any) which is almost like a Chinese Cinema 101 crash course.. It starts with a bit of history on how the Chinese film industry has arisen from the ashes......

Last Saturday, Shanghaiist was invited to attend the unveiling of Shanghai's newest gallery space, m97. Once we negotiated the tricky shared building entrance, we made our way to the second floor and was immediately impressed by the physical space and airy nature of the gallery. The grand opening featured an exhibition of by emerging Beijing photographer and artist Jiang Zhi titled "Things Would Turn Simpler Once They Happened". Immediately we had diametrically opposing thoughts. "How......

We just watched this episode of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel and thought you might get a kick out of it. Thank God for YouTube. Here's the official description: Deep in the Mojave Desert Buster takes the hot seat in the MythBusters' quest to test the myth of the Ming Dynasty Astronaut. Will he defy the laws of gravity and survive an explosive launch into space? Or ... not? The show is about Wan Hu,......

On Saturday, November 11, New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Thomas L. Friedman spoke at Three On The Bund as part of the Three Talk Lecture Series which was co-hosted by the Penguin Group, publisher of Friedman's bestseller The World Is Flat (TWIF). When the globe-trotter, Friedman comes to Shanghai, it is clear how much he travels by the fact that he seems to be unsure of exactly where he is, as in one instance,......

We told you about her in in March. Now the latest on Yao Defen, the world's tallest woman, from Reuters: Yao Defen, believed to be the world's tallest woman, has begun treatment in a Shanghai hospital to rid her of a brain tumor at the root of her gigantism. Yao, from a poor farming family in eastern China's Anhui province, measures 2.36 meters (7.75 ft), Chinese doctors say. That is 5 cm (2 inches) more......