Results tagged “entertainment”

Ah, Singles Day, how ambivalent we are to you. It's nice to have an Anti-Valentine's Day, but it doesn't feel any more joyous to actively celebrate solidarity in solitude. And while we never did get that singing Celine Dion card, or anything at all, we did find a pretty interesting list from Chinese netizens: China's 11 most eligible bachelors!

With everything that's going on tonight, FREE the WAX has got one more gig vying for your attention featuring American electro-cinematic producer maestro Eliot Lipp who is best known for his seamless weaving of 80s electro, 70s jazz-fusion and Bay Area hip hop.

With the recent news about Beijing giving Disneyland Shanghai the go ahead, it looks like it's only a matter of time before the mouse lands in town. After a recent meeting of the City's International Business Leaders Advisory Council, Mayor Han Zheng declared that a decision could be announced as early as next week. But between the lines, we all know that's code for unequivocal approval, right? After all, it's not like the Shanghai government would announce a greenlight on Disneyland and then snatch it away last minute. Oh wait.

OOOOH NOOO. Can we say worst idea ever?! Some Shanghai karaoke bars are considering putting commercials between songs as a way to get some extra moolah to pay for music royalties. The idea, as with most bad ideas relating to music, came from the very company entrusted by music copyright owners to collect royalties. At least the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau has been skeptical, saying consumers can complain if they feel their interests are being violated by annoying ads during time they already paid for. Please, Partyworld and Haoledi: DON'T DO IT. Source: Shanghai Daily

After a rather disappointing Shanghai summer movie season (Terminator Salvation, Transformers 2, Ice Age 3), we're really looking forward to our annual Disney/Pixar pickup with the long-awaited China-release of "Up", hitting theaters tomorrow!

Maybe you've never heard of Onra or Arnaud Bertrand but you may actually recognize one of his songs, "The Anthem", which was featured in a Coca Cola ad for the Beijing Olympics starring 3D animated versions of Yao Ming and LeBron James.

Earlier this month, we were walking through the Channel One mall when we came across auditions for a new reality tV series called 加油！东方天使 - roughly translatable into "Let's Go! Oriental Angel."

        

Last Friday at Yuyintang, Nosaj Thing shone in his beat-heavy live set laced with synth sounds and slaps amid an obvious underlying hip hop influence. He worked the Akai Mpd-32 controller, laptop and audio interface and yes the crowd lapped it up.

Nosaj Thing, a.k.a. Jason Cheung, is a L.A.-based music producer whose geeky charm at first sight deceptively conceals his sinister and innovative musical agendas. At the age of 13, he molded his father's rudimentary PC that struggled with even Word documents into a Frankestein Intel Celeron home studio.

The fine folks at TEDxShanghai have offered Shanghaiist readers a chance to crash the event's invitation-only Geeks and Glamour party at M1NT at 7:30 on Monday night. All you have to do is email sage@tedxshanghai.com with this as your subject line: "Me + Shanghaiist + Geeks & Glamour." Send your emails soon — only the first 50 emailers will get an invite to the exclusive party (UPDATE: Entry to the party is RMB 100, paid at the door. The entry fee includes a yet-to-be-announced drink special. Sorry for the confusion!). What is TEDxShanghai? "TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience." Okay, but what is TED? "TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. ... The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)." Geeks & Glamour is the after-party for TEDxShanghai, Shanghai's independently-organized TED event, which is already booked solid (but you can watch a live feed — with simultaneous English/Chinese translation — on Tudou starting at 10 a.m. Monday). You can learn more on their Facebook page. Start sending your emails! See you on Monday.

Live digital design competition Cut&Paste Shanghai will close with a big bang this Saturday May 23 in a live show co-hosted with Shanghai's very own FREE the WAX featuring LA music producer Chris Alfaro.

We hope everyone's readying their tv sets to watch Shanghai Rush, China's first English-language reality show, which premiers tonight at 8pm on ICS. While others have taken a sneak peek at the first episode - in which we're introduced to the ten teams of two that will be gracing our televisions for the next twelve Sundays - we decided to have a chat with the man behind the scenes: Eric Ransdell, director.

As the world reflects on how to stay afloat during this worldwide economic recession, three billionaire brothers in Hong Kong have come up with a solution: build a giant Ark.

Here's a great party trick by a dude dressed like one of the Blues Brothers. A man calling himself the "King of Dice" broke his own dice-stacking record, creating a tower of 26 dice by shaking a cup.

Hong Kong actor turned scandalous sexy picture taker Edison Chan has braved death threats to promote his new movie, The Sniper, in public - despite being a “little bit afraid.” Edison, who appeared in public in Singapore on Sunday gave AFP a bunch of quotable quotes:

The second career of Chinese diver-turned-actor Tian Liang has so far been received tepidly, but his latest role has sparked a big debate in China. Tian, a gold medalist in platform diving at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and a bronze medalist in Athens, has been chosen to play Lei Feng, a soldier held up by Mao as an example of selflessness for all of China to follow. The choice of Tian for the role has angered a host of Chinese netizens, who basically argue that Tian is too self-centered, materialistic and publicity-loving to play Lei Feng. Tian was kicked off the Chinese diving team ahead of the 2008 Olympics for too enthusiastically pursuing commercial activities.

By Matt Doyle

For all you movie going folks who want an alternative to buying fake DVDs (we know you're out there!), Shanghai might be getting a “free market zone” where controls on imported movies will be relaxed and local film-makers can export their stuff to the rest of the world. Hurrah!

• 'Slumdog' opens as Boyle says he'll helm Shanghai film fest [Shanghai Daily] "Danny Boyle will be the jury president for this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, the Oscar-winning director confirmed at the Chinese mainland premiere of 'Slumdog Millionaire' in Beijing yesterday. 'It's fantastic to be in a film festival,' Boyle said, adding that the Shanghai event will be his first jury assignment."
• Report Says Executions Doubled in 2008 [NYTimes.com] With at least 1,718, China was responsible for 72 percent of all executions in 2008, the report stated. After China were Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the United States (37) and Pakistan (36), according to the group. 'Together they carried out 93 percent of all executions worldwide,' the report said. The Chinese authorities also handed down at least 7,003 new death sentences last year, although the report said the true total of both executions and death sentences 'remains shrouded in secrecy.' Some countries, China and North Korea among them, do not disclose the number of executions they carry out."
• China Unicom should quash iPhone launch date rumors to secure best deal - expert [Interfax TMT China] "Xiang Ligang, CEO of domestic telecom news portal Cctime.com and guest columnist for Interfax, told Chinese magazine PC Home that he is concerned over the widespread rumor that China Unicom is, for reasons of prestige, determined to strike a deal with Apple in time to allow it to release the iPhone in China by May 17. He said that if true, the rumors reveal China Unicom's bottom line in the negotiations, vastly strengthening Apple's hand."

When we first arrived in Shanghai a long, long time ago, all there was to do on weekends was vogue at Bar Rouge---balancing champagne glasses and tottering around on stilettos while trying to not catch our hair on fire. Well, things have changed. Champagne is no longer as popular and now there is a Barbie shop to vogue around at, plus this weekend our Pearl of the East has oystered out an arts scene involving more than the usual bomb shelters, beer and beavers.

Street Fighter II, the 1990s arcade game that swallowed more of our quarters than we care to count, holds a very dear place in our hearts. And Chinese kung-fu master Chun Li, being the first playable female fighter ever, was especially dear to at least one uber-geeky Shanghaiist editor.

Some of us here have tried our hand at learning Kung Fu before, and one of the reasons we've quit is because of 7-year-olds like Guo Siping. Guo, who appeared on the 2008 championship round of “Sunshine Kids” and now has a film contract, reminds of exactly the type of primary school student that used to titter in the background as we struggled to touch our toes.

Freddie Mae, S&P, Lehman, Goldman, Nikkei and The Intern fight it out to be the ultimate Wall Street Fighter in this hilarious new video clip from the guys at CBFresh.

Shanghai's premier Latin music party (perhaps Shanghai's only Latin music party, though that doesn't make it any less premier) is back!

Up-and-coming electronic hip-hop producer Dorian Concept, otherwise known as Oliver Thomas Johnson, will take to the stage come this Thursday at The Shelter. Having developed his own distinctive twisted sound, the 24-year-old Austrian has just released his debut LP and performed at this year's Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards a few weeks back.

Christian Bale had a freak out. And then someone remixed it into the most amazing techno song ever. And since he once played a nutty Shanghai expat kid in Empire of the Sun, we think that gives us all the reason we need to put it up here. NSFW

Tang Wei, the “Lust, Caution” star who was maybe-kinda-banned-but-maybe-kinda-not on the mainland has scored her first role since the 2007 film. She will be playing the female romantic lead, opposite Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung, in the upcoming Chinese comedy “Crossing Hennessy.” The movie is about a friendship that develops between two shopkeepers who are set up on a blind date. Source: AP

If you ever find yourself in Ningbo (about a two hour distance from Shanghai), check out their zoo. The staff have reportedly trained a sea lion to write a word in Chinese. Peter, a six-year-old male, can now write 牛 (bull), and sign off on his work with a special "sea lion" stamp. Cute! No word on whether the trainers will teach him anything else, since 牛 took him a good three months to master. Source: Ananova

Fans of Bulldog's Thursday trivia nights can now get a double dose of factual fun every week.

Mix Hindi hip hop, Chinese visuals and Bollywood-style dancing and the result is this music video from the soundtrack of the new made-in-China Bollywood film Chandni Chowk to China. For a new trailer of the movie, see below the fold. Shanghai scenes appear between 1:50 and 2:06