US billionaire Warren Buffett may have appeared on this year's chunwan (春晚), CCTV's Chinese New Year gala show, but even that wasn't enough to turn around the long-standing decline of the annual affair. Barbara Demick and John Lee of the Los Angeles Times write that increasingly heavy-handed censorship has caused several heavyweight celebrities to drop out of the show and driven viewers away: more ›

Last Monday, Premier Wen Jiabao paid a rare visit to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls -- the government department where petitioners from all over the country go to air their grievances. It was the first time in 61 years a top government official has visited, leading many people to call it an "encouraging" effort to connect with the people. But by doing so, it seems Wen might have angered the head of the propaganda department. more ›

Nick Taylor of City Weekend has edited his account of what happened at Velvet Lounge on Wednesday evening. The new story makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Love it!:

At Velvet Lounge last night I was charged twice for a drink. I paid by card, entered my pin, then was asked to enter it again because it didn't work. more ›

Nick Taylor of City Weekend shares with us his horrible experience of getting overcharged for drinks at Velvet Lounge and tells you why you should sign up for ICBC's text alerts:

At Velvet Lounge last night I was charged twice for a drink. I paid by card, entered my pin, then was asked to enter it again because it didn't work. more ›

The mailbox shared by employees of the discriminatory, transphobic talent show known as China's Got Talent has been hacked into and completely emptied. Confidential documents, including a US$400,000 production manual purchased from Fremantle Media are now gone, reports Shanghai Daily:

All 900 e-mails about the program's detailed running schedules, plans and contestants' resumes were deleted. But the biggest loss is the production manual of the "Got Talent" series, which was purchased from Fremantle Media. It is valued at about US$400,000. more ›

The angry email by the Commissioner General of the Czech pavilion to the Steering Committee of Expo 2010 that was leaked out to Shanghaiist yesterday has been making a splash across the Czech media and blogosphere. Due to our limited (read: non-existent) Czech, we can't quite make out what people in the Czech Republic are saying about the saga, but we did find this report by the English-language Prague Daily Monitor. more ›

Remember that angry email from the Commissioner General of the Czech pavilion to Expo 2010's Steering Committee? Pavel Antonín Stehlík's concern #2 was that the pavilion would have to close in May due to his staff's residence permit problems. Bureaucratic missiles and whatnot aside, we hope that doesn't happen -- the Czech pavilion is one pavilion where we, and the Chinese visitors with us, had the most fun. Czech street artists often perform outside the pavilion to eager crowds, and the inside is chock full of 20 digital exhibits and installations (like the giant golden teardrop by Federico Diaz), even a green screen. "What's so exciting about a green screen!?" a friend asked. Well, a whole lot, judging by the excitement and long line of people waiting to hop into the miniature glider. more ›

The following email, sent by Pavel Antonín Stehlík, the Commissioner-General of the Czech Pavilion, to the Expo 2010 Steering Committee, has been sent to us by a Shanghaiist reader. In the email peppered with exclamation marks, Stehlík blasts the committee for a laundry list of policies that he sees as "unacceptable", "unnecessary" and "ridiculous" -- and reveals that the Czech pavilion will have to close in May because they have been unable to sort out residence permits for their staff due to an uncooperative Protocol Department. Our heart goes out to Stehlík for all the shit he has had to put up with, and we hope he feels better now that the issues he's highlighted have gotten a proper airing here. more ›

Everyone we've been talking to has been curious as to how the owners and investors of the new club in town could have blown US$15 million and still made it look like crap, so we got in touch with the Las Vegas architect Cagley & Tanner that is supposed to have designed the club. Below an exchange of emails between us and them: more ›

The Straits Times reports that actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) has made her first public appearance since pictures of her canoodling topless with her Israeli fiance Vivi Nevo at a beach hit the interwebs. According to the report, Zhang had a "forced smile" at the show. Also:

She avoided reporters by shunning the red carpet but, in a speech on stage, she appeared to allude to being indifferent to online criticism that she had shamed China by sunbathing topless with Israeli investor Vivi Nevo. more ›

Aric Queen, former executive producer of ChinesePod, writing from exile, appears to think so. Once upon a time, his friend Frank Fradella flew to Shanghai and approached ChinesePod with a pitch for a new show designed to teach foreigners how to recognise radicals [see video below]. He was told by the Shanghai startup that they didn't have the budget for the show and Fradella flew home a little dejected, but that was that.
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Christopher St. Cavish reports that superstar chef Jereme Leung is out at Whampoa Club, the restaurant he helped found. Cavish also says David Laris is now acting as a consultant to the restaurant that bears his name. Meanwhile — and this should be classified as gossip for now — a source on the Bund recently told us that days could be numbered for several of the tenants of the former Union Building. Stay tuned. more ›

Actress Gong Li (巩俐) appeared recently as glamorous as ever in Beijing for a L'Oreal event in what was likely her first public appearance in China since she took on Singaporean citizenship. At a press conference she revealed that she's been receiving lots of offers from Hollywood lately, and when asked if she had any plans to return to Chinese cinema, she said, "I've always had, I've always had." But when the question moved on to her citizenship, Gong Li promptly turned around, spoke to her minders and made a quick exit. more ›

The tiny Shanghai English-language media scene is abuzz with gossips and rumours over just what is going to happen to SH Mag next. Asia City, the publisher of SH which owns similar magazines in regional cities like Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, has apparently put up a "FOR SALE" sign over the magazine. more ›

Since rumours of a miscarriage began making the rounds last month, Chinese pop diva Faye Wong has been spotted for the first time in public leaving a hotel in Beijing and then driving home alone. Gone are the days of her wild partying and crazy temperament. Faye Wong is now a devoted mother who has been more than happy to stay out of the limelight. This baby would have been Faye Wong's third child. Her first daughter was born to singer Dou Wei and her second daughter with current hubby Li Yapeng was born with a cleft lip — news that were lapped up by entertainment journalists around the region. more ›

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As revealed by Qilu TV, the top three earners in the Chinese sports world ranked according to the sum of their basic annual pay, prize money, endorsement and appearance fees are Yao Ming (RMB250 million), Liu Xiang (RMB70 million) and Guo Jingjing (RMB15 million). These are followed by Sun Jihai (RMB10 million), Shao Jiayi (RMB6 million), Dong Fangzhuo (RMB4.8 million) and Zheng Zhi (RMB4.5 million). more ›

Tough times ahead, it seems, for the English-language magazines up north in Beijing. Too months ahead of the Olympics, the powers that be have declared time out on Time Out Beijing, writes Jane Macartney of The Times:

The June issue of Time Out Beijing has been banned from distribution by China's censors, The Times has learnt. But the decision seems to have been taken not because of any racy or politically incorrect content. Time Out Beijing has fallen victim to the accelerating imposition of restrictions on any aspect of life in the capital deemed to pose a potential threat to a smooth Olympics. more ›

Ex-Playboy covergirl, epileptic dancer, and Shanghai Baby Bai Ling, was, as we told you earlier, arrested for shoplifting, but apparently, her shoplifting charges have been dropped and she was fined a grand total of US$200 for disturbing the peace. Here is her account of the incident:

"I went across the [hall] with the toy in my hand, and asked which battery would fit. They told me [they knew which would fit], but they had really long line and I had to make the flight," the New York Post quoted her as saying. Bai claimed store clerks asked if she could wait and she agreed, exiting to the side of the shop, continuing to call and text. The next thing she knew, she was being arrested for shoplifting. more ›

Sorry to be giving Edison a bit more air time than he deserves, but we just COULD NOT pass this one up. Just when we were wondering when it would happen, some entrepreneurial chap in Hong Kong has already gone ahead to design some Edison Chen t-shirts, created a MySpace page for it and an online store! The t-shirts cost HK$170 a pop (not sure if they'll deliver to Shanghai) and come in 3 designs each for men and ladies, with captions that read "Edison shot me too!", "Be my friend and I'll share the other 1000 photos!" and "Edison made me naive and silly!" Ingenious, and the t-shirts aren't bad-looking at all! Now, why oh why, weren't we the first to think of this idea? more ›

Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) has been in the news quite a bit lately, and for all the wrong reasons. Last week, pictures of a woman with an uncanny resemblance to her surfaced during the Edison Chen scandal and this time, she refers to Hong Kong as a foreign country (国外), and talks of how she wants to gain glory for the people of Taiwan (“为台湾人争光"). Her Chinese fans are not finding it funny, and she is getting it big time on the Internet. God knows what will happen to her, but we do know the last time Zhang Huimei (张惠妹) sang the Taiwanese anthem, she was barred from performing in China.
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WARNING: If you are sick and tired of reading about Edison Chen's private parts ... stop reading now! more ›

BAIDU RAPPED FOR SPREADING THE PICTURES; CHINESE COPS ARREST 10 SUSPECTS IN SHENZHEN more ›

So much has happened since our last post on the Edison Chen photo scandal that it is about time we updated you! First, the Edison Chen saga has caught the attention of CNN. The Chinese-speaking world has never been as enraptured in a scandal as this, and its scale and magnitude is threatening to make Paris Hilton look very passé. Kristie Lu Stout reports:
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For Part 1 of this story, click HERE. more ›

RELEASE OF PICTURES OF HONG KONG STARS IN THE NUDE IN VARIOUS COMPROMISING SITUATIONS SETS TONGUES WAGGING ACROSS ASIA more ›

Here, Shanghai, were your favourite stories for the month of January: more ›

In our past life as a public relations executive, we were always surprised at how China's media world appears to be in sort of a pre-Cambrian age with as many publications going out of business as there are coming in. Call up all the journalists you've invited after a press conference and there always be bound to be one or two publications that have folded up. Well it appears we haven't quite come out of those pre-Cambrian times yet, and at least the expat magazine circle is beginning to feel the heat. Hot on the heels of the closure of News Views Reviews comes the demise of Hint Magazine. We just received this in our mail from the editors of the publication:

Dear Friends of Hint Magazine, more ›

What should a Wall Street firm do when it loses billions on risky bets in the mortgage securities market? Have its CEO call the Chinese government for a capital infusion of course. Bear Stearns did it back in October. Yesterday, Morgan Stanley announced a USD $5 billion equity investment from China Investment Corp. after writing down USD $9.4 billion of its mortgage securities portfolio, ouch! China Investment Corp. is the USD $200 billion sovereign wealth fund that the Chinese government has setup to invest its massive foreign currency hoard, estimated at roughly USD $1.4 trillion. more ›