Bo Guagua, the scion of China's most talked about political family, has issued his first statement since the fallout surrounding what his parents -- former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai -- allegedly did to British businessman Neil Heywood. more ›

Could this be the inside of Bo Guagua's apartment? Want China Times reports that a Hong Kong reporter managed to climb up to the second floor apartment of Gua² (Gua)² in Cambridge, where the son of Bo Xilai is currently still studying at the Kennedy School of Government, according to the US State Department. Now that's journalism! more ›

Remember 2008 when the Olympic theme song "Beijing Welcomes You" song was playing out of every store, public square, and radio station? (Wasn't every student learning Chinese at the time forced to learn it too?) If you're still bothered by the tune you may want to skip this video. If not, three Harvard students enrolled in a class called Chinese BB (elementary modern Chinese) have posted up this video "Harvard Welcomes You" sung in Mandarin. It's a parody of the Beijing 2008 Olympics theme and extols the reasons why all should come to Harvard (not that Chinese people really need encouragement to send their kids to "Ha-fo"....we're pretty sure it's the MO of every family in the country). Anyway, if you must make us choose, we think the hands down best reason to attend the Ivy is because as these three boys sing, the Annenberg cafeteria looks just like the Harry Potter dining commons (check it out at 1:53). more ›

"FUDAN University has teamed up with Harvard University and the University of Tokyo to launch open online lecture classes. This is seen as another step forward by local universities developing web resources. The Sandel Classroom will be held six to eight times a year, focusing on a wide range of topics, including how people should survive disasters. Michael Sandel, an American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University, delivered a lecture to students from the three universities for the first time over the weekend. "It's great to attend the class and talk with students across the globe," said Kuang Shenda, a student at Fudan's School of International Relations and Public Affairs. Previously, Fudan launched lectures on NetEase Open Course. Other universities have open courses on iTunes U and other public platforms." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

What that buys, according to Gady Epstein at Forbes: "Weekend classes, summer schools and small group trips over three to four years before they start school at American colleges. Their teachers at the program, the two-year-old Leadership Academy Shanghai, are mostly recent graduates from the best universities in China. The instruction style is bespoke and not very Confucian: very small classes, with students challenging their teachers." Oh yes, and not only bragging rights when your kid actually gets in, but the security of presuming he might actually be qualified to take over your family business when you retire - something the older generation apparently regards as priceless. more ›

A new documentary film comparing six high school students from China, the U.S. and India calls for reform of the U.S. education system in favor of the more rigorous Asian education systems. Two Million Minutes, a film developed by American venture capitalist Bob Compton, points out that students in China and India work much harder than those in the U.S., score consistently better than American students on international student comparisons, and now pose a threat to American students' job prospects in the U.S. In the movie's trailer, one American high school student gabs about sororities while her Chinese counterpart is featured fiercely practicing her violin. more ›

By JFK Miller more ›

Chronic pain. Debilitating illness. There's little fun to be had from these subjects. So hats off to Shanghai Daily and its over zealous/under zealous/possibly nonexistent subs' desk for throwing a hyperbole cherry bomb in to the toilet bowl of one individual's suffering. The following, which featured in Friday's paper, is best if you imagine it's being read by Peter Cushing: STABBING. Gnawing. Burning. Severe pain can rip your life apart and make you pray for... more ›

Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) has released its fifth annual Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) which saw American universities take eight of the top ten spots. Harvard University emerged right on top, followed by Stanford University and University of California-Berkeley. Britain's Oxford and Cambridge -- the only two non-American universities to make it to the top ten -- secured the fourth and tenth positions respectively. The top university in Asia was the University of Tokyo, edging in at the twentieth spot. more ›

Female voice: Bye more ›

It's not the New York Times and it is certainly a bit slanted towards Beijing by the nature of its source, but the list of top ten books noted by users of book club site Douban.com is a whimsical glimpse into what young, plugged-in Chinese are reading offline these days. Here is the list as it stands today: more ›

And there's no reason that feeling should only be the province of a hyper-educated elite. Ever since studying abroad was reintroduced in the 1980s, Chinese people have had a major jones for Harvard and the rest of the Ivies. There are tons of books with Harvard as the subject, and especially popular among those are ones that tell about how a Chinese student managed to get in or raise a kid that got into Harvard. more ›

This has nothing to do with Shanghai, or China for that matter. But we can't get enough of these Japanese television commercials for Suntory Boss coffee drink featuring Oscar-winner and Harvard-grad Tommy Lee Jones. Jones has been appearing in Boss ads for a year now, we think, but we first learned of the campaign recently after a friend returned to Shanghai from Japan confused about the billboards he saw all over the place featuring huge, and not particularly flattering, head shots of the craggy-faced Mr. Jones. more ›

Compiled by Peijin Chen and Dan Washburn more ›

Many American private universities have huge endowments, which are something like a trust fund, or more colloquially a "nest egg," sometimes worth billions of dollars that the universities use for whatever purposes they see fit. The size of the endowment (stop snickering now) is in no small way related to the reputation of the university. For example, Harvard University's is worth a whopping $22.6 billion (second only to the Gates foundation in net worth among non-profits). Of course, you don't get this kind of money by letting it sit in the bank -- you use all the investment tools and expertise at your disposal to make more money. more ›

Remember back in late 2004 when plans for a Playboy "lifestyle club" in Shanghai were announced and then halted over the span of a couple days? Well, a look at the minutes from a recent Playboy conference call with investors shows there is still hope for the Bunnies to hop over the Huangpu: more ›

So it seems that Shanghaiist is not the only weblogger in Shanghai. more ›

There is some debate locally about a house cleaning company's plan to employ college students to clean the dorm rooms of other students who elect to pay for the service: more ›