Jesus seems to be making a comeback in the PRC. Since the introduction of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries to China, many of them to Shanghai, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Christianity has been a popular minority religion. While practice abated during Mao’s hay day, China has experienced a resurgence in past years. Just two weeks ago, we reported that Orthodox priests were allowed to lead a service in Shanghai for the first time......

Air Asia, Asia's first budget airline, has just announced its latest China destination. From now on, you can fly from Hangzhou (which is just a stone's throw from Shanghai) to Kuala Lumpur at a fraction of the price! We just did a quick check on their system and if you plan ahead of time, you can expect to pay around RMB1,115 (taxes included) for the flight. You can even select your own seats on the......

In keeping with his practise of giving new year's predictions, US televangelist and host of The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson has fresh revelation from the Lord concerning 2008:"What I'm praying about is China. I'm asking for 250 million in China. We haven't had that breakthrough yet but I think we're going to get it. God's going to give us China. And China will be the largest Christian nation on the......

Shanghaiist has often wondered what China would look like if it had complete religious freedom, as in the freedom to organise and set up religious denominations and associations outside of the five "official religions", and to have all these religious groups enter the free-wheeling marketplace with their books, CDs, video programmes and what not. This weekend, we caught a glimpse of that when a woman claiming to be "Jesus' sister" was arrested in the Guangdong......

Many moons ago, we had a conversation with a Chinese colleague that went something along the lines of the following:同事：你是基督徒吗？ 我：不是很好的基督徒，不是很虔诚的基督徒，不过应该还算基督徒吧。 同事：哈哈，明白了。我不是很好的共产党员，也不是很坏，但是也许已经不能算共产党员了。我有三年没有交党费了，而且一直不去参加会议，应该已经被除名了。 Colleague: Are you a Christian? Me: Uhhhhmmmm.... Not a very good one, not a very devout one, but yes I guess you could still say I'm one? Colleague: Haha, I understand. I'm not a very good CCP member, and not a very bad one either, but you probably can't say I'm a member......

Remember the Shaanxi Temple Axe Murderer? You know, the one that killed eleven people aged 12-62 at a Taoist temple with an ax, dismembered them and fed some of their choice parts, including eyeballs, to the spotted dog that accompanied him? He was sentenced to death on October 19. For some good background on this man and his life, check out what ESWN had to say. There's a new development in this case. The main......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

The world seems to be (perenially) on its way to hell in a handbasket, and yet sweet baby Jesus is taking his precious time to come back and make things better. In the meantime, however, there are people taking a more proactive stance. Here's something that you know could never happen in China, much less in Shanghai: Over a thousand youngsters declared their commitment to be a pure and holy follower of Christ, saying "No"......

There was a fire on the maglev train. The train was evacuated but no one was hurt.Google's blog service, Blogger, is now accessible within China without a proxy server. We tried it -- it works.If 2010 gets any better, Jesus won't have to come back -- in addition to Disneyland, the Expo, and 5,000 subway lines, we're going to be home to Asia's largest railway station, to be located somewhere in the Hongqiao area.A pilot......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

GigShanghai: Noisy Sundays, females unite, and free BEP tickets!...

Blame it on the World Cup, but it’s a testament to the steady improvement of the Shanghai music scene that we now consider a weekend with four live shows “slow.” We unfortunately missed the Beijing rockers, Camel, at Live Bar on Friday night, but heard from reliable sources that they put on a fun, up-beat, pop-punk set. On Saturday, Hackbuteer played a wild show worthy of a crowd of 400 people at Yuyintang, except that......

Something's definitely afoot in the smoky backrooms of Zhongnanhai and the smoke-free and spooky chambers of the Vatican: China is pulling The Da Vinci Code off screens nationwide. So far, there is no official reason, just conjectures. The Scotsman said that it had something to do with Beijing's relations to the Vatican: Relations between Beijing and the Vatican -- who do not have diplomatic ties -- reached a new low last month when the Pope......

Shanghaiist has always been a little wary of traveling salesmen. Especially when their wares are of the snake oil variety. Which is why we weren't excited -- alas, nor surprised -- when we stumbled upon pray4shanghai.com: The goal of this website is to bring people from around the world to intercede for the over 20 million people of Shanghai. ... [W]e believe that Shanghai is the key catalyst in seeing a nation come back to......

Shanghaiist has a grisly story to tell you. Zhang Zhian, a PhD student at Fudan University, is running a devilish experiment (report in Chinese) on live human subjects. He's asked 24 students to spend a week during their winter vacations away from the internet and television. Thankfully, these hapless middle school students are not being subjected to simultaneous deprivation of both TV and the internet. It's just one or the other, unless, of course they......

Shanghaiist isn't a Christian by a long shot, but lately we've been a bit nostalgic for the whole Christmas spirit thing, so we decided today to venture to the Community Church on Hengshan Lu (located right across from Narcissus and One Thousand and One Nights, which are perhaps landmarks for you decidedly un-Christian types) to see what was going on. In the afternoon we managed to walk into the middle of a play about some......

Over this past weekend, 8 ultimate frisbee teams from across Asia gathered for the Hong Kong Pan-Asian Tournament 2005, each vying for the coveted spot at the top of the podium reserved for the tournament's champion. After two days and seven grueling games, only one team was left standing: Shanghai's very own HuWa (沪蛙 or Shanghai Frogs), a team of 14 expats (9 men and 5 women) who live, work, and study in the city......