Owen Fletcher of the WSJ reports, "It wasn’t as dramatic as in years past, when intellectual property authorities used steam-rollers instead of shredding machines, but what a recent Chinese anti-piracy activity lacked in heavy machinery it more than made up for in quantity."
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Hot off the press from Queer Comrades: this selection of ten of the most well-received Chinese language lesbian films. For those of you queer film aficionados that are interested, many of these films are actually available in your local DVD store. more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute 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 (and here). more ›

Way back in '04, when we were young(ish) and brazen, we declared that Da Marco on Yandang Lu had the best pizza in Shanghai. "I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life," is what we said. It was easier to be so sure-minded about pizza back then, because there were very few reasonable options Shanghai. Are there more now? We think so. But perhaps, after nearly six years, our definition of "reasonable pizza" has changed a bit. more ›

The Italians are famous for their invention of romance and pizza. The Chinese are famous for expertly copying the Italians. And now along with Dolce and Prada, romance and pizza have been copied in time for Valentine's Day. Perusing the delivery menu of Deli Roma Pizza, you will be delighted to discover the 10" Love Pizza–heart-shaped and extra cheesy for 98 RMB (buy-one-get-one-free, in case you don't like sharing, also comes with chicken wings and 1.25 L of Pepsi or 7up). more ›

So the movie did finally get made after all. Last Thursday evening at the Paramount was the premiere of Milk & Fashion, touted as the first film to feature "non-Asian actors speaking Chinese in lead roles of a feature film for the first time ever". The crowd gathered as early as 7 pm to feast on the buffet. The room was packed with a diverse population of foreigners, Shanghainese ladies and numerous dubious characters. The seats were all taken. The sound system was too loud, and at 8.30, they began with a series of pop singers who performed for a crowd who couldn't seem to care less. The hosts were unconvincing and their cues badly rehearsed, ‘milking’ the applause conspicuously. more ›

Troubling news has emerged over the last day regarding the tragic killing of a man in Tianmen, Hubei province. more ›

By JFK Miller more ›

If you've been in China for a while, you will more likely than not have been a witness to the frequent scuffles between street sellers, store owners and the guys from the city cops, or the 城管, who are technically not "police" but rather "city administration" and "street management" guys. Most illegal street sellers and hawkers like your DVD salesmen and lamb kebab guys will typically just pack up their stuff and make a quick disappearance, and then come back as soon as the annoying city cops are gone. It's just part of the cat and mouse game that they have to get used to if they want to make a living, but what did one Beijing pet seller do to "escape" from them? A Youku mo-blogger tells us [Translation by Shanghaiist]: more ›

With the holiday season in full swing things usually slow down in the music scene. But this weekend there are a few shows that should get us through to the New Year. more ›

We seriously LOVE some of the things we hear about going on in our city. Yes, some of the people we meet here can be harsh and mean, but this story goes to show that humanity still exists in Shanghai. Two weeks ago, Rebekah Pothaar, an executive with Ctrip.com, found that her ayi's husband was in a serious motorbike collision. They went with her to the hospital and found that surgery was going to cost... more ›

Heres' a public service announcement to (illegal) satellite TV users from Shanghaiist: Don't put stuff on top of your satellite receiver box. We had gotten in the habit of placing the occasional DVD or DVD sleeve on top of our satellite box, which is covered by a bunch of small vents. Not long ago, while working at our computer (surprise, surprise) at around 1 am, we heard a popping noise coming from near the TV... more ›

If you've been browsing the DVD shops lately, you might have already come across Nanking, a documentary—of sorts—about the Nanjing massacre of 1937. The film consists of three elements: first-person accounts from survivors and eye witnesses, including Chinese civilians and soldiers as well as Japanese soldiers. These are all real people, telling their stories on film. Then there actors portraying some of the people, mostly Europeans and Americans, that played a role in setting up... more ›

Southeast Asian pact exposes rifts [NY Times] Southeast Asian leaders signed a charter here today that was drafted as a watershed document to bind the region together as a European-style economic community but has instead exposed the sharp divisions over Myanmar and other issues among the signatories.Malaysia busts DVD lab in its biggest raid in 2007 [Reuters] Malaysia has raided a laboratory capable of churning out $52 million worth of pirated DVDs a year in... more ›

A quick note to interrupt your last-minute Halloween costume shopping (we made our costume yesterday ... you'll definitely hear us coming) to let you know what films we plan to show at the big Shanghaiist Halloween Party on Saturday night. If you haven't been to Shanghai Studio, it's a spooky maze-like place that occupies an old bomb shelter. So if music and dancing are your things, we've got rooms for that. If chatting and drinking are your things, we've got rooms for that, too. For those of you who have "other" activities in mind, there are also plenty of dark hallways and corners for you to do your thing. more ›

Via China Net Investor, this interview of the founders of Shanghai-based dot.com Tudou.com, Gary Wang and Marc van der Chijs, serves up one very juicy tidbit of information — that Tudou.com is already streaming more minutes of video content every month than YouTube (15 billion minutes per month versus 3.5 billion)! Then in a self-deprecatory turn, Wang turns around to say that those numbers are never really accurate. more ›

Well, at least Puxi appears to be safe. Thank god for the Huangpu! more ›

People who have made the news this week more ›

Not long ago, we asked when our local DVD shop would have decent bootlegs of The Simpsons Movie. The answer: Now. And it was probably here a while ago (we were out of town). We haven't not watched the whole thing yet, but the quality of this camcorder version seems to be passable. Who is to thank blame for this intellectual property violation? Someone in Germany, it would seem. Screen shots to the right. more ›

As we get closer to July 7, the day of Al Gore’s Live Earth concert, more info has popped-up on the official artist line-up in Shanghai: more ›

Hollywood is a new DVD shop just a few doors away from Oscars (nee Ka De Club) in Taikang Lu. This new DVD emporium stocks an amazing range of new and old American, Chinese and international titles. It is very similar to its neighbour, but with more choice and better merchandising. All of the films are boxed in hardcases on tall shelves along wide aisles. Hollywood is spacious and the layout makes it almost possible to find what you want. One day they may even get round to filing titles into alphabetical order, grouping them by genre. more ›

If you get a strange feeling of deja vu as you watch the next Spider-Man movie, the chances are you have already seen it. Reuters have reported Sony's claims that there are no genuine fake copies of Spider-Man 3 floating around the Internet or among pirate vendors. The disks you see on the streets of Shanghai these days will probably be Spider-Man 2 in disguise as the latest movie. The real fakes should be available from your local DVD seller on May 4th when Spiderman 3 has its global release. While we would never condone the piracy of copyrighted material, we are always on the lookout for a high quality inspection copy of Spider-Man 3, if anyone would like to prove Sony wrong. more ›

Shanghaiist was delighted to learn that there is finally an environmentally-friendly way to get rid of the contents of her "electronic junk and bad DVD drawer of death." more ›

Well, opening today in France, at least. We first told you about Summer Palace, the controversial film from Shanghai-born director Lou Ye, last May. Since then, the director of Weekend Lover (1995), Suzhou River (2000) and Purple Butterfly (2003) has been banned for five years from making films in China for submitting Summer Palace to the Cannes Film Festival before it was approved by government censors. This was Lou Ye's second ban — Suzhou River got him two years. more ›

Are we ethically conflicted but entertainment starved residents about to see a yet another assault on our beloved, pirated copyright-challenged DVDs? According to Yahoo (quoting Xinhua, but we couldn't find it anywhere on their website), the Supreme People's Court decided yesterday to widen their net in their attempts to curb this country's rampant movie and music piracy: more ›

It's possible that we just caught the recently opened Piccone Live Music Bar on a bad night, but honestly the most interesting aspect of our experience was the toilet in the men's bathroom. more ›

On Sunday we spent the afternoon at Glamour Bar. No, not to drink cocktails, but for a much more noble purpose: to attend Dai Sijie's session at the Shanghai International Literary Festival (SILF). The session was in French only, and Dai talked about "la part personnelle d'implication dans l'écriture" (to what extend one can use one's personal experiences in one's writings). more ›

But they only get RMB 25,000 in damages. The movie companies involved in the suit were New Line Productions, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. The defendant was listed as Shanghai Leying Audio Visual Co. Ltd, but this story tells us the company also went by the name "Kadi" and was " well-known to many expatriates in Shanghai for selling pirated products." We think it might be safe to assume that they are talking about Ka De Club, the chain (?) of DVD shops that has been fleecing foreigners for years (OK, perhaps fleecing is a little strong — their prices were around 3 or 4 kuai higher than other shops selling the same thing). Evidently, the name change occurred after charges were filed, so the shop could continue to operate. We've lost track of Ka De — it moved around quite a bit over the years, trying to avoid Johnny Law, we assume (the raid that led to this lawsuit was in Changning) — and then there were Ka De clones, we think, trying to cash in on the "good" name. We have a feeling they'll be back. more ›

The Blood of Yingzhou District, a film tha follows the lives of childen in Anhui who have lost their parents to AIDS, won the Oscar for best documentary short earlier today. We haven't seen the film, and doubt it will be showing up in Shanghai theaters ... well, ever. Doesn't seem like the type of thing our friendly local DVD vendors would carry either, although we have been surprised before. Has anyone seen it? more ›