This weekend you can watch a German film or martial arts comedy, groove to the 90s with Leather Locklear, or enjoy world championship water sports! Continue reading for all the goings-on around town, or check out our calendar for more. more ›

Who says there's no organic grassroots cultural movement in Shanghai? The Shanghai Repertory Theater is presenting a weeklong festival of theater performances, featuring a choice selection of original works and established classics. more ›

In case, like me, you completely screwed up your planning this weekend and missed the literary event of the year, City Weekend has helpfully put up its audio recordings. Listen to Sarah Brennan reading her Chinese calendar-inspired children's story , Thomas Keneally - author of the book that was turned into Schindler's List - talk about his life, and Pankaj Mishra and Ian Johnson talking about the resurgence of religion in India and China... and more! more ›

Restaurant week starts today! There's every sort of cuisine on offer and some really good deals to be had: 78/118RMB for lunch; 168/248RMB dinner. Bon appetit! more ›

The Shanghai International Literary Festival celebrates its opening with a cocktail tonight, meaning for the next three weeks, there will be a slew of literary-minded events and things to do. We've got all the events listed up on our calendar. If you're itching for an excuse to get into costume, Bar Rouge's Brazilian Carnival party on Saturday is the perfect thing for you. And we'll add a small reminder that Infected Mushroom and Super Junior are dropping into town as well. more ›

Glamour bar's swing dancing night returns, the Roots and Shoots organization is screening a film about their founder, Jane Goodall, which contains some never before release footage. Amy Sommers is sharing what she unearthed about the disappearing historic buildings of Shanghai, and on Sunday, you can eat all the ice cream you want for breakfast. For all things music, check out the Midweek Music Preview (published, you guessed it, every Wednesday.) And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. more ›

We were scandalized by stories of love hotels and elevator trysts, tittilated by tales of naked Nubian giants on the Bund and set all aflutter by anecdotes about orgy-tastic dinner parties... it was an amazing showing for H.A.L. Literature and That's Shanghai's first Erotic Fiction contest at Glamour Bar. But in the end, only three could win. Congratulations to... more ›

Here's another great excuse to stay out after work this Thursday night (the first being happy hour with Ed Wang). Vantage magazine's launch party at Glamour Bar will be providing free flow booze for two hours and sweet canapes -- sounds like a fantastic party to us! We hear that there will be dancers, special performances, and a lucky draw so bring your business card too. But if you wanna RSVP, you need to do that today. more ›

That's Shanghai and H.A.L. Publishing teamed up last month to hold Shanghai's first ever erotic fiction contest! (Devastated you missed your chance to enter? There's always next year!) The finalists have been chosen, and they will be gathering at Glamour Bar this Thursday at 8pm to read their works and let you all judge which you think is the steamiest (see our calendar for details.) more ›

February is such a short month, we're already halfway through now and the Shanghai Litfest is peeking above the horizon. more ›

Join us and EnjoyShanghai at Prive this Saturday for our Bad Romance party, talk about design at KIN's ARCDES or book swapping at Glamour. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. more ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. more ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. more ›

If you’re busy working on your New Year’s resolutions (a.k.a. a list of overambitious goals that you’re just going to discard by March) put it away! New Year’s Eve is a time to celebrate the year that’s passing instead of worrying about the one to come, so head out and join your fellow Shanghailanders for a snazzy end to 2009. more ›

WEDNESDAY more ›

Yet another jam-packed weekend hits Shanghai. In case you're looking for something to do that's not related to all the live music choices available this week, we present you with some sweet alternatives. Ranging from a wig party, to a pub crawl, to yet another new art exhibit, we're sure you'll find something to keep yourself occupied. more ›

Distract yourself from the rapidly dropping temperatures in Shanghai this week with a smattering of eclectic events, from Chinese performing Hitchcock and Koreans performing Italian opera to Norwegian jazz and the International Puppet Festival. more ›

For the past year, the non-profit and non-governmental organization Hands on Shanghai, with the help of ad agency TBWA and Kodak, has been putting cameras in the hands of children from migrant families and teaching them principles of photography both inside the classroom and out in the field. Several of the photos taken by the kids through this learning program, called "Shutterbugs," will be on display and up for auction this Sunday at Glamour Bar, with the proceeds going towards expanding the program in Shanghai and Chengdu. more ›

Zachary Mexico's first book, China Underground, just came out this month. It's an edgy look at margins of modern China—and it's a real page-turner. Mexico mixes it up with the masses, returning with sixteen tales of unique individuals "trying to figure out what's going on, trying to carve a place out for themselves in the new China." more ›

Luckily for us here in Shanghai, U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration happens at around the midnight hour. That means, basically, that it's completely acceptable to drink to this historical event more ›

Jens Lekman had his second show in Shanghai last night, this one at Glamour Bar. Mixing jazzy guitar chords and a quirky upbeat DJ, Lekman sang his signature melodic-melancholic songs causing many well-dressed men and women to shake their heads and croon along. Besides the surprisingly comfortable (albeit de-luxe) venue, the most striking aspect of the concert was how many Swedish girls Jens managed to pull off the streets. Enough to fill, say, an Ikea. more ›

We have cleared up our earlier confusion. Here are the official Jens Lekman and Viktor Sjöberg show dates for Shanghai and Beijing: more ›

UPDATE: Official China tour dates here. more ›

Friday night was the first of five nights of racy burlesque performances by the Atomic Bombshells at the Glamour Bar. It was the perfect cure for those "boring Olympic opening ceremony blues", at least until China's own Olympic team paraded onto the screen--at which point nothing could draw the crowd's attention away from the big screen. Luckily that won't be an issue for the remaining 4 nights of shows. more ›

Hopefully you'll catch this post in time to get down to Glamour tonight for Norwegian jazz band The Core. They played last night there already, and will do again tonight for their last show here in Shanghai. We'll be there tonight, as we had our own shows to play last night. more ›

Since we didn't make it to Saturday's show at twocities, we made a special effort to go hear the Canadian piano-cello duo this afternoon at Glamour Bar, and enjoyed it. The two players are both quite virtuosic on their respective axes, not to mention well versed in both the classical and jazz realms. And though there were plenty of jazz and classical influences present in the music, most of it was generally unclassifiable, eclectic melanges of various world rhythms and tonalities. Overall lots of fun... it made us think how (even more) exciting it would be to hear the two leading a larger ensemble playing the same music. more ›

Our bad for not publishing this earlier, but tonight at the twocities gallery there will be an amazing show by the piano-cello duet of David Braid and Matt Brubeck. If you can't make it tonight, there's still hope as they play tomorrow afternoon at the Glamour Bar. We think both rooms are going to be perfect for this duo, each usually have an intimate quiet setting focused on the music. Of course the Glamour Bar is a bar, but since they are playing at 4pm as a special concert, it should be much more music-focused than that room usually is later in the evening. more ›

By Benjamin Cohen more ›

As you’ve no doubt read about already here on Shanghaiist, this weekend could be one of the best for live music since we scuttled into the Year of the Rat. Therefore, you’ll forgive us if we don’t make it down to M on the Bund but instead spend our time over the next couple of days at slightly less refined venues checking out some great bands. Nevertheless, if books not beats are your thing, then M is the place to be as we enter round 3 of SILF (not to be confused with these SILFs incidentally). more ›

This evening will see the second week of the Shanghai International Literary Festival kicking off down at M on the Bund. Events will continue across the weekend and throughout the week, providing plenty of opportunities to see a whole host of great writers and performers. Ticket details can be found here as can the full line-up (which we suggest you check - there's far too much going on for us to cover it all in one post!). Below are just some of the highlights you can expect to see: more ›