The 56-year-old traveler, whose identity has not been released by authorities, had been traveling with her sister, who resides in the US, when the $450 million-dollar ship, carrying upwards of 4,200 passengers and crew members, collided with a reef off the Tuscan coast, since claiming the lives of at least six people, while at least 29 people are still missing, according to foreign media reports. more ›

• Just the mere whiff of Chinese investment in the Italian debt market had stocks going bonkers on Monday. WSJ points out that, weirdly enough, none of the rumors are really substantiated and this anonymous Italian official just happened to mention the prospects one day before Italian bonds for 2018/2020 go on sale...
• That's Shanghai gives us a nice review of Paul French's new non-fiction murder mystery Midnight in Peking.
• LA Times explains why the mooncake is very much the fruitcake of China. (Agreed - dessert should never feel like a punishment!)

Since national broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) aired a report alleging that "Made in Italy" products sold at luxury furniture retailer DaVinci are actually made in China, the company, which retails such top brands as Armani Casa, Fendi Casa and Versace Home, has become a target of national scorn. more ›

Yangzhou has opened a new Marco Polo Memorial Hall, a museum dedicated to the 13th century explorer, but a minor tussle has already erupted between Croats and Italians. more ›

In one of the more bizarre power plays we've heard of in a while, China's Great Wall Motors is accusing Italian car designer Fiat of stealing their business secrets. If you're thinking "wait, isn't it usually the other way around?", you might be interested to know that Fiat had sued GWM two years ago for copying the design of a previous car, suspiciously named the "Panda" (we know, national heritage). The Chinese manufacturer claims that after their faux-Panda was banned in Italy, Fiat illegally infiltrated their engineering center with the purpose of stealing GWM's secrets. Although the attorney for GWM has deigned to specify exactly what secrets were stolen, we have a funny feeling they were more knock offs. After all, they're only asking for 100,000 RMB in reparations, which is suspicious in itself. more ›

• Johnny Depp images not spared by China's Internet porn filter [ABS-CBN] "What do Johnny Depp, Garfield, Paris Hilton and roast pork have in common? In China, the answer is that a new government-mandated Internet filter rates some pictures of all four of them as bad for your moral health. Beijing has ordered all personal computers sold in China from July 1 to be preinstalled with the Green Dam software, which it says is designed to block pornographic and violent images, and which critics fear will be used to extend censorship."
• China Flooding Kills 75 [VOA] "Heavy rains are causing severe flooding in areas of southern China. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee from their homes, and the government said as many as 75 people have died. As heavy rains continue in southern China, state television broadcast images of people rafting down flooded streets, in water reaching as high as the storefront signs on Monday."
• World's rich targeted in new model for carbon cuts [CNN] "Researchers in the U.S. have proposed a new way of allocating responsibility for carbon emissions they say could solve the impasse between developed and developing countries.A hypothetical scenario in the report controversially absolves China, currently the world's largest emitter of carbon emissions, from making cuts to C02 for the next decade. The scenario assumes that the world agrees to take action to cut global emissions from 2010, so that levels of carbon emissions in 2030 are similar to now."

• Secret Meeting Between U.S. and China Broke New Ground on Climate Change [NYT] "Loy said the group was able to delve into the positions of both countries and gain better understandings about the political realities both countries face. Yet as to reaching a global deal in Copenhagen, Loy said, little progress was made."There were things that we learned, but it wasn't a totally radical or surprising conversation. We knew a great deal about China's views before," he said. The discussions were "more informal and occasionally more substantive and frank, but Mr. Xie is a cautious person"."
• Students protest in lead-up to June 4 Tiananmen anniversary [The Australian] "Thousands of students are reported to have protested in the streets of Nanjing, in central eastern China - one of the centres of protests in 1989 - following an incident on Monday night in which government security guards enforcing restrictions on peddlers allegedly attacked classmates who had set up footpath stalls."
• China's top legislator meets with Italian premier [Xinhua] "The Italian leaders expressed the willingness to expand cooperation with China in various fields, saying China's economic growth will hopefully provide new energy for the recovery and rally of world economy. Both sides agreed that the two countries should coordinate their stance on reform of the international financial system and work for an early recovery of global economy from the financial crisis."

Boing Boing points us to this interesting art installation by Chinese artist Liu Jianhua who recreated the Shanghai skyline from dice and poker-chips. This was exhibited at the Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy. A close-up shot follows after the jump. [Photos by Cinghialino] more ›

As previously mentioned, Shanghai's 11th annual International Film Festival kicked off this weekend (albeit not too smoothly) with an eclectic mix of movies showing all day and night at its 23 theaters. In a place like China that receives so small a selection of international features, this is an incredible opportunity to see works you otherwise wouldn't have a chance to catch in a theater. We only made it to two screenings, but both were well attended and received by diverse international audiences. Below are brief descriptions of what we saw and we encourage readers to add any films that they would recommend seeing in the remaining week of screenings. more ›

Listening to the ever-excellent Football Weekly podcast from Guardian Unlimited the other day, we stumbled across the story of the Tibetan "national" team playing against Padania this week in Milan. If you're thinking "how can Tibet have a national team?" or "what the hell is a Padania?" then you've clearly never heard of the Viva World Cup. Frankly, you probably wouldn't be the only one. more ›

Is the Chinese government on a warpath of revenge? After enduring an embarrassing year of recalls and bans that left the "Made in China" tag-line in serious need of rehab, it appears that officials are eager to jump on any reason to have the tables turned. After Italy identified higher than acceptable amounts of dioxin in some mozzarella cheese made in the southern Campania region, the folks at the always busy Administration for Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine (or as we like to call them, "Irony and Whine") have put a ban on mozzarella imports from Italy, with other Italian cheeses required to go through lab tests before they're allowed in. From the International Herald Tribune: more ›

The idea is simple: get five internationally reknowned directors to make short, impressionistic films about Beijing, showing the people of Beijing in their everyday lives and as they prepare for the Olympics—and in the kindest light possible. The five filmmakers were: Patrice Leconte (France), Andrew Lau (Hong Kong/China), Majid Majidi (Iran), Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy), and Daryl Goodrich (UK). You can find a rundown of each film's style and content as well as a link to each one.Whatever their differences in style and subject matter, they are all undeniably and unforgivably cheesy, like postcards of moving images. They remind us of those insipid China Eastern Airlines commercials—except worse—because you have to take into account that these were made by men (not a woman in the bunch) that have, at some point in their lives, made films that were actually fit for human consumption.There's a little voice inside our head that tells us that no one likes the guy that takes things a bit too seriously and can't see the light-hearted side of things—it's the Olympics after all, and Pollyannish is to be expected, Olympic-colored balloons can and should rise and form the Olympic rings in the azure sky. At the same time, there was another little voice in our head that it's also okay for us to slightly downgrade our respect for directors, renowned or not, that strew this kind of filmic excrement over our collective sidewalk. These artists are kinda sucking CCP cock, aren't they? Okay, we know this ain't Cannes, and that it might be considered an honor by some to be allowed to make promotional films for the Olympic Games. But seriously, is banality the new language of ideology? Please, show us more people striking on drums and practicing tai-chi in the park. And throw in some cute little Chinese kids while you're at it. Sorry, < /end_rant_here >. We'll start taking our meds again, we promise. more ›

It is no secret by now. China executes more people than the rest of the world put together (yes, even more than the Islamic world). In fact, Amnesty International says China carries out about 80 percent of the world's total capital punishments, if not more (1,770 people in 2005). The recent UN vote for a moratorium on executions saw a fractious two-day debate between the anti-execution camp led by Italy and the pro-execution camp led by Singapore, which has the ignominious honour of having the highest number of executions per capita in the world (coming from there, we are ashamed). The result of the vote: 104 for, 54 against and 29 abstentions. Opponents of the moratorium included the United States, China and Iran (one rarely finds these three countries in the same camp). more ›

We read a fair amount of China-related news, and it's hard not to get a bit apathetic about it all, since so much of it seems to revolve around the same few topics. Slate's article, however, touches on something we don't normally hear about: China's tomato products industry.:China, it turns out, now grows more tomatoes for processing—the kind that get turned into ketchup, pasta sauce, salsa—than any place in the world besides California, and maybe... more ›

According to a blog essay we found, a recent poll by Harris Interactive showed that of 6,000 people from France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US, the overwhelming majority considered China the second most powerful nation in the world after the USA. We did some searching on the internet, and couldn't find mention of that report. We tried on Harris Interactive's site as well, but no dice. Perhaps we haven't looked hard enough? Or... more ›

Oh boy, we are just beginning to love the things that we can show you here now that Youtube is back. And with these two freshly-uploaded videos, you have two different broadcasters — Australia's Channel 7 and Al-Jazeera English — and their take on the topic of "Made in China". China has just overtaken Japan as Australia's largest trading partner. The spate of headline-grabbing product quality issues, particularly the high profile toy recalls made by Mattel prompted Channel 7 to ask the question: Can we still trust "Made in China"? Their reporters went all the way to Foshan where the Lee Der factory (that made all those lead-laced toys) is located, and spoke to a few ex-employees who are now jobless since the factory has closed down. more ›

The latest issue of TIME Magazine has an interesting story of a US-based company that has just set up shop in where else but Inner Mongolia, to feed the millions of hungry Chinese who are now looking to eat something other than pork: more ›

Jakob Montrasio points us to a most unbelievable ranking of the world's top 25 cities with skyscrapers published by the German magazine Spiegel: more ›

The Absolute House mailing list must be just about the only one we don't receive email from, because we only learned recently (by seeing an ad in a magazine) that Jennifer Gentle, a band from one of our favorite "indie" labels SubPop, will be performing there on June 24th (when Shanghaiist will conveniently be visiting Singapore). Because we know you are wondering: No one in Jennifer Gentle is named Jennifer — it's a bunch of guys from Italy. more ›

Tomorrow marks the arrival of the Shanghai Creative Bazaar, which as dutifully reported in our local English-language rags, is a celebration of those brave souls who flout conventional wisdom and revel in offbeatedness. (Otherwise known as artisans.) Forty designers and 30 shops of handcrafted zaniness, y'all. We’d be amiss, however, if we didn’t mention that in addition to sartorial sizzle, there’s plenty of sizzling food to be had as well. The luncheon, which runs in conjunction with the rest of the festivities (from 10 am to 3 pm, with an afterparty to commence at 7:30 pm) showcases a cornucopia of organic food’s finest, and yes, we’re here to break down exactly what that means. To start, a half-leek, half-spinach soup, followed by a squash and sweet potato sformato (similar to a soufflé), and then, the piece(s) de resistance: a Panini duo. Beef tenderloin with tonnato sauce (no, that’s not a typo), and for veggie lovers (and lovers of peppers), a roasted pepper sandwich. Oh, and in case the sformato didn’t tip you off, this is definitely Italian, and we’re not talking Ruzzi either, although the one-price-buys-all (50 kuai for the whole shebang) might lead you to think that. more ›

This many come as a shock to some of you, but some of us here at Shanghaiist can be, well, a little cynical. No! Surely not, you say! Ah, but true, my friend, but true. For example, we never took much notice of the restaurant Nuova Vita, near the intersection of Fuxing Lu and Ruijin Er Lu. It had existed pretty much since we moved to the city, and considering its age and curious lack of hype, we had it pegged as traditional Shanghainese Italian fare—canned sauce, rubbery noodles, with prices fit only for a Roman Pontiff. more ›

Photo by 2 dogs taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

The two photos above are from Shanghai. The second, we think, is Shanghai Railway Station. Barbieri's work comes to our city as part of the Shanghai Biennale and the Year of Italy in China. More Biennale events are listed here. more ›

The prize package for best 80s outfit at our Happy Hour this Friday sure is heating up. In addition to a bottle of Solid XS Vodka donated by our host Freelance Bar & Grill, the lucky winner will also get two items kindly donated by the self-described "sexiest menswear store in Shanghai" -- MANifesto. (We will force the winner to take a couple Shanghaiist T-shirts off our hands, as well.) more ›

With the World Cup having finally drawn to a close, what better time to review, not the tournament itself, but the various drinking establishments in the city that Shanghaiist frequented during a month of serious boozing and football-watching. Quite simply, there was no better excuse than the world's biggest sporting event to check out some new watering holes, and swell the coffers of Shanghai's already dirt-rich bar owners. more ›

Shanghaiist wasn't expecting a great deal when we went along last night to the opening of Shanghai's newest luxury product, the Costa Allegra cruise ship, which was setting off from the city's port on its maiden voyage. Of even more concern was the dress code on the invitation: "Trendy Elegant." Those are two words that not even Grima Wormtongue could bring himself to label this particular writer with. more ›

Anyway, Huang Jianxiang, the idiot in question, has apologized: more ›