In its second year, the first independent dance festival in China brings lust, desire, sensuality and sexuality to the stage. The Shanghai Dance Festival initiated by Jin Xing exhibits works of dance companies from China, Denmark, Israel, Sweden and Switzerland. more ›

Remember Hairong Tiantian (海容天天), the Chinese blogger, who shot to fame last year by soliciting pictures of limp dicks? She started dabbling with a bit of performance art earlier this year when she joined artist Ye Fu living in adjacent tiny glass rooms, sealed off from one another and the rest of the world, in Beijing's eastern Jiuxianqiao industrial area. Well this time, she has shed her clothes again all in the name of art, in a performance item called 'Lotus' under an exhibition called 99 Tents, 99 Dreams (“99个帐篷，99个梦想”) at the 'Left and Right Art Zone' (左右艺术区) in Beijing. more ›

JazzArt, as you might have heard, is a monthly jazz concert series held at a different gallery each month. They have become our favorite regular jazz event, not just because we happen to be involved with the planning and implementation but also because art galleries are fantastic places for jazz concerts in general. Also people who show up to these kind of concerts tend to really listen to the music, whereas in smoky bars at night many people come to chat, or conspicuously consume pricy bottles of booze, perhaps giving the occasional nod toward the music in the background when it happens to catch their attention. The JazzArt series has been wildly successful, much to the chagrin of the evil gallery owners who pulled out at the last minute of planning early this year. Drawing an estimated 250 people to last month's show, at least 300 people are expected to pack this month's concert on the 3rd floor of MOCA to the brim. So get there early in order to get a seat, as there will only be about 100 chairs. more ›

The fourth concert in the JazzArt series takes place this Sunday August 12 at 3pm at the TwoCities gallery on Moganshan lu, and will feature the music of Canadian Clarinetist and Composer extraordinaire James Danderfer. He will lead a 5-piece group, performing original contemporary jazz that he has been writing over the last year in preparation for a recording the group will make, supported by a grant awarded by the Canada Council For the Arts. James has been based in Shanghai performing in a number of venues for over 2 years now, and the music on this upcoming album is largely inspired by life in this massive city we call home. It should be a fun concert, a sharp contrast to last month's concert by Alec Haavik's Friction Five at the 1918 Artspace (which was fantastic- we apologize to everyone for the glaring lack of announcement or review of it here. Here is a good picture and review of it in Chinese). James' understated, melodic style is a lot mellower than Alec's jazz-rock fusion, of course needless to say both are awesome in their own ways. more ›

The JazzArt concert series got off to a fantastic start with a packed house enjoying two sets of Lawrence Ku's original music on this past Sunday. His group of seven musicians featured the cream of the crop on the Shanghai jazz scene, nearly all of whom are also faculty at the JZ school — including EJ Parker, Alec Haavik, Andy Hunter, Chris Trzcinski, the author of this post, Lawrence himself, as well as the amazing Beijing-based pianist XiaJia. The concert was held at the TwoCities art gallery on Moganshan Lu, and was a perfect room for the band to play in. It's just the right size for that kind of ensemble, because there was no need to use microphones at all. In fact the only amplification used was for the bass and guitar, and it was minimal. more ›

This first week of the JazzArt concert series will feature the Lawrence Ku Septet playing at the TwoCities Gallery at M50 on Moganshan lu. The septet, which performs quite rarely, is in fact playing quite a few times this month. This is partly because trombonist Andy Hunter is in town through the end of the month, and there aren’t really any other good jazz trombonists in Shanghai. Besides the Jazzy Shanghai festival performance last week and this weekend’s JazzArt concert, the group will also play a CD release party on the 24th (and the Beijing jazz festival at the end of the month). Of course, the imminent release of the album is the other main reason for the increased performance frequency. more ›

Sunday night we headed down to the House of Blues and Jazz to check out the new band from New Orleans, “Continuum”. They started a couple weeks ago but already have their groove on, with an easy stage presence that shows they are comfortable playing together and a group sound that is starting to come together nicely. Front man Thaddeus Ford, who plays the trumpet and acts as MC, is a 6th generation New Orleans jazz musician, and has about four different names for each of the musicians onstage as he announces them. He and the vocalist Evelyn are actually the only ones originally from New Orleans, as their band was originally scheduled to come play later in the year but was recently contacted by the club and asked if they could come earlier. Because of the short notice they were not able to use their regular band members, but were still able to bring some solid players to fill in on piano and drums. In fact they were never able to line up a bass player before arriving in town, so they picked up Michael Brownell, a bass player who has been based in town for the last half-year or so now. In any case they are creating a good atmosphere already, mixing some jazz standards in with the funk, soul and R&B where Evelyn really shines. more ›

If Shanghaiist had a yuan for every time someone back home asked "So, you have tickets to the Olympics yet?!", we would be rolling in the coinage like Scrooge McDuck. Beijing, Shanghai, it's all the same to them. On Monday, Olympic fever hit another high as the Beijing Olympic committee unveiled the official "pictographs" that will represent each of the events to be held at the 2008 games. In addition to the official "running man" logo that has been plastered all over official and counterfeit souvenirs since the Beijing games were announced, 35 other designs were created with the same idea in mind. more ›

• Chongqing recently held an art event where a professor at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts got four volunteers to paint on the "canvas" of five beautiful women wrapped in cloths. Some of the men were embarrassed. The professor in charge denied that this event had anything to do with the release of his new book and the subsequent book signing.
• This kid from Guangxi, all of 6 years old, can do over 30 pushups in slightly more than 10 seconds. If that doesn't impress you, then consider the fact that he can do more than 10,000 pushups in a little more than three hours. After failing to break the world record last year because of what his dad called a failure to perform under pressure, the kid is set on breaking the world record this year.
• This one is a bit graphic and contains scenes of wanton violence. This 38-year-old man was allegedly tortured by his wife. We're not talking S&M gone wrong here -- this guy was chained like dog and imprisoned in his house while his wife poured scalding water on his head, lit firecrackers near his eyes, and then poured salt, vinegar, and various other materials into his eyes. She would also occasionally starve him or threaten to stab him with a fruit knife if he tried to escape. She even once paraded him down the street, handcuffed. As of now, they are still married.

Shanghai Daily says that we ought to expect to see some famous British poems adorning our city's subways in the near future. From the report: more ›

Don't let it be said that the "acting" community in Shanghai is elitist. Far from it. They'll take anyone. Trust us, we know. Could be ... interesting: more ›