By Benjamin Cohen In Shanghai, everyday is great. Here are five reasons why: Tuesday April 15th: Clouds of Crowds If you haven't been out to Island6 yet for "Clouds of Crowds," stop in before it drifts away (last day is April 29th). This interactive multimedia installations seeks to draw the viewer into blurry realm of chaos and order. Island6 Arts Center 2F, Bldg 6, 120 Moganshan Rd. Thursday April 17th: City Sound Sessions Take a......

Over this weekend, Blue Frog celebrated its grand opening in Macau's Venetian in a glitzy event that featured performances by Shaolin monks, Australian DJ Alex Taylor and Shanghai's very own Sugar Mama and the Cotton Club Band. Apparently, quite a number of people flew over from Shanghai for the event (too bad for us, we were never invited). In this video, Blue Frog looks a lot more like a club than anything else, and certainly......

For all of those of you who stayed at home, hunched over the computer, waiting for an update on the happenings in live music this weekend....well, we apologize. Dust yourself off, pick up the shaver and take a shower, today is a big day for music. Getting things started early, 4:30pm at 4Live, are Taiwan indie pop duo, Natural Q. Seems to be the season for indie pop, after performances last month by Carrchy and......

Underground Resistance's first foray into mainland China last Saturday at The Shelter was truly a significant milestone for Shanghai's underground scene. DJ Dex aka Nomadico unleashed a set that's been described as a "real history lesson in dance music" — one that took the 800 or so revellers from the pre-electronic routes of modern dance music in the shape of parliament and James Brown, right up to the proper "electro" from the Advent ("program da......

If you think only Chinese people use Baidu, you're dead wrong. Recently, a friend of ours in the US complained that he was unable to find any more music through Baidu's MP3 search service. Not a surprise really, since that treasure trove of pirated music that is now getting sued for big bucks in a Beijing court by some of the biggest names in music including Universal, EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and their local subsidiaries,......

Okay, okay, we promise we will STOP talking about Facebook right after this post for the next week, but seriously, people, it is such a great way to not just entertain ourselves, but also to find out about what's going on in our city [1] . Through Facebook, we've not only seen how people in our town are organising themselves for good, we find that it also can be a great source of GOSSIP. And......

Okay, so we've all seen people writing with their feet, but have you seen anyone doing calligraphy with their HEAD? Hell, eversince we received our first computer, we've barely been able to hold a pen! We can't be too sure where this amputee-calligrapher-busker is exactly because the guy who uploaded this video did not give more information, but from a few comments we gather he is somewhere out there on the streets of Guangzhou. Okay,......

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......

JinJiang Park, that wonderful wonderland that we saw a few days ago, is, as Swiss James of ISpyShanghai.com discovers, a "rich vein of badly translated English". Reading through this sign just made us go "OMFGOMFGOMFGOMFGOMFG..." The 3,541 members of the Facebook group Save Chinglish - China's disappearing culture (by the way, don't forget to join our group!) will be disappointed that Chinglish is not only not disappearing, it is alive and well! Pictures from ISpyShanghai.com......

Friends of ours have joked before that they didn't believe Thomas L. Friedman when he proclaimed that "The World is Flat" till they saw the chests of the girls waitressing at Hooters here. Adrian Baschuk from Current TV checks out the Shanghai outlet (which has the distinction of being China's very first Hooters). He seemed to really like it and was even thinking of going back there for Thanksgiving!......

Have you ever wondered what life must be like for someone who is watched everywhere she goes, whether she's eating, drinking, sleeping, shopping? It's the reason why Shanghai photographer Don Yap has tagged her "jailbird" in one of his recent portraits of her. Watch Paris eat xiaolongbao at Nanxiang and sip tea at Yuyuan, and go shopping at Lu Kun's (the greatest PR coup scored yet by any Shanghai-based designer!). The Shanghai municipal government......

Wondering what the Chinese media are saying about Lust, Caution? We found the following story from the Information Times (信息时报) entitled Survey: Fans rushing to imitate positions in Lust Caution 调查:影迷争相模仿《色,戒》经典床戏 dated 7 Nov on Xinhua — yes, the website everyone goes to for high-quality Chinese journalism. Shanghaiist was so inspired by the spirit of investigative journalism exhibited by this reporter that we decided we had to translate the whole story to share with you.......

If you run your own company, or if you have been hired by someone else to run theirs, read this. Because something is going to change on 1 Jan 2008 that will not just have a profound impact on labour relations in China, it may rock your world to its foundations, especially those of you hiring "unofficial" employees. January 1 marks the day when China's new labour law goes into effect, and it is......

And finally, the video that we promised! This will definitely be one party to remember. Catch yourself on the video and pass it on to all your friends who came! Till our next party, rock on Shanghai! Many thanks to the fabulous Tiphaine and Annie of Vision Rouge for the video!......

We told you it was going to be the biggest, baddest, spookiest, scariest Halloween didn't we? A whopping 700 of you Shanghaiist freaks came to storm the gates of hell and turn the city upside down last Saturday, and my what a party that was. One of our friend's girlfriends was too spooked to enter because "there were too many freaks and weirdoes" but hey that's just the way Shanghaiist likes it. At one......

So both Myspace and Friendster have their own China versions. Now Kaiser Kuo of Ogilvy Digital China Watch points us to a report on China Business News (第一财经日报) which cites an “industry insider” who says that Facebook plans to release additional language interfaces and intends to enter the China market as early as December this year. The paper also claims that "Facebook has given up its initial plan to set up its own China-based site......

Shanghaiist has just touched down in Beijing. And just as we were wondering if it was just us, or if the air in the Jing was really that much worse *cough*cough*, this is what we read:Birth defects in Chinese infants have soared nearly 40 percent since 2001There is one Chinese baby born with birth defects every 30 secondsIn Beijing, the incidence of breast cancer has increased 23 percent in 10 years, with about 45 women......

Although Triangle premiered at Cannes film festival this year, it wasn't until recently that we got a mainland China acceptable version into theaters around town. For all you non-Hong Kong action film fanbois and grlz out there, this film was a collaborative effort between Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnny To, each one making one-third of the film, with the stipulation that there be mutual non-interference—each director does what they want with the story, according......

So in the meanwhile, Youtube remains blocked. Shanghai blogger John Pasden of Sinosplice informs us that Youtube wasn't the only unlucky fella. Revver.com and Dailymotion.com also appear to be hit. And of course Google Video was never accessible in China to begin with, so that's a no-count. But the mainstream media don't seem to be bothered with the Youtube block. If you don't believe me, just compare for yourself by clicking here and here. For......

Have you (like us) waited until the last minute to get your Halloween costume even though back in September you promised yourself you'd start putting it together early this year? Not to worry. Shanghaiist has you covered. Here's a list of places to get pre-made Halloween costumes and accessories that we put together last year. We've given them a call and apparently they're all still up and running. If any of you finds any other......

It is back — Shanghai's biggest, baddest, scariest, spookiest Halloween party! If you came to our kickass party last year, you'll know what we're talking about. If you didn't, ask your friends who did, or see what you missed out on here and here. We created such a ruckus the police came to join in the fun! This year, expect more spooky hallways, more scary music and more freaky movies! AND... make sure you come......

As many of you would know by now, Youtube has been blocked in China. Looks like we got happy too soon about the unblocking of Blogspot.Danwei asks if the block has come as a result of the ongoing 17th Party Congress. Well, Marc van der Chijs, founder of the Shanghai-based Tudou.com, doesn't think so: The reason? Probably not directly the ongoing 17th National Congress in Beijing, then they would have blocked the site last week......

Comments below don’t necessarily represent the Shanghaiist’s point of view or opinion regarding the Canadian government (we don't want them to hold a grudge and kick us out of Canada too!)… we just received it recently from the Busdriver promoter and thought it was kind of funny… shows are still on in Beijing and Shanghai…..and we are as giddy as a school boy in the girls locker room to see Busdriver play live! “Nothing......

During our times in the suburbs of New Jersey (don't hate), the American restaurant chain Applebee's was always a friendly place for meals with family and late night gatherings with friends. All of those nostalgic feelings came rushing back as Shanghaiist read some rumors on the internets about the opening of the chain's first outlet in China. With our curiosity peaked, we decided to go check it out. As Shanghaiist and accompanying guest entered the......

About 100 Chinese teachers are expected to arrive at state schools in the United Kingdom (yes, that haven of foreign language education) by next year, but schools which have already employed some of those teachers in their classrooms (which they described as "lovely") have already found problems, such as the following:"Their lack of familiarity with the English system of discipline, target setting etc is a problem.""They also tend to have different, perhaps unrealistic, expectations of......

We've just been made aware of a new daily (well, almost) vod-cast called The Shanghai Show. Hosted by Aric Queen who used to contribute to this blog, it features interesting snippets of daily life in Shanghai from the People's Square, inside some Shanghainese guy's new home, the Jingan area to the Jiashan wet market. Today's show, however, takes the cake (yes, literally). As advised by the producers, only those with really STRONG stomachs should proceed.......

Beijing's housing market bubbles [IHT] Prices for high-end homes in China's capital have been bouncing to record new levels all year, even with dramatically fewer transactions, rental prices flat and many new units empty. Beijing Knocks Down Petitioners' Houses [Guardian Unlimited] Chinese authorities knocked down part of a rundown neighborhood in Beijing on Wednesday where people live, sometimes for months, while petitioning the central government for help fighting grievances in their hometowns. Though water is......

According to recent rumors we've heard, tickets are on sale this week for the biggest show of the year (in our humble opinion), The Beyoncé Experience! Beyoncé (aka Beyoncé Knowles), the 27-year old singer, model, and actress, is currently one of the biggest superstars in America. She began her career with the ginormously successful all-girl group Destiny's Child and has been just as prosperous as a solo artist. She brings her world tour called The......

At the risk of pissing off our rich and powerful film producer friends and thereby never getting invited to a press junket again, we want to begin this movie review with a simple declarative sentence, the likes of which has not and may never be seen again in film criticism: the movie Blood Brothers (天堂口) sucked ass. If you were to ask why first-time helmer Alexi Tan's film sucked, when it had John Woo executive......

Walking into Steak & Eggs, Shanghaiist was flooded with fond childhood memories of chowing down on big greasy breakfasts at truck-stop diners during family road trips along Interstate 10. Sure, we love Moon River and its classic 1950's theme, but Steak & Eggs is the first place we've eaten at in Shanghai that fits the mold of the no-frills American roadside diner. The owner is a friendly Canadian named Paul, who opened the first two......