Quality and beauty are the two features Andrew James looks out for when he sources for contemporary art. This was what he liked about Dorothy M. Yoon's works when he first came upon them at a London art fair. Last Saturday's opening reception for Dorothy's first solo exhibition in China attracted a good number of people, presumably intrigued by the bizarre portraits of Asian females in all kinds of blonde wigs imaginable. While surreal......

The corner of Fumin Lu and Julu Lu is a hotspot for expat diners: Nepali Kitchen, Shintori, Guyi, Otto, Coconut Paradise, and Mesa. But smack dab in the middle are also a handful of Chinese restaurants that don't get much mention in our beloved English-language rags. We checked one of them out recently and have now added Hui Yuan Fang (汇元坊) to the list of worthy destinations located within that intersection. We're not big fans......

Well it certainly looks like we weren't the only guys to get spammed by the folks from Riviera Events (check out the anonymous tips on our Contribute page!), Michael Cole of the SH Magazine did too. He asks some very poignant questions on his blog: Are women going to be encouraged to go to events where the flyer promotes doing strange things with Champagne bottles? When they say that there will be "free entry for......

We remember, a few months ago, walking to Embre on Changshu Lu only to discover it had closed down, after decent reviews and six months of existence. We were exploring the restaurant options near our new apartment, and our second choice, a tapas place on Huashan Lu, also was no longer in operation — really, the building had been leveled. Food and beverage places disappear quickly here in Shanghai ... but sometimes they reappear quickly,......

Summer is here and everything is heating up. Leading up to this weekend, this is what Shanghaiist thinks is going to be hot today and tomorrow. Today, Wednesday May 30th Texans In Exile Monthly meeting at Bubbas Texan or a friend of Texas? You can meet up with fellow lovers of the Lone Star State during their monthly T.I.E. meeting at Bubbas tonight from 7pm. Call Ken to let him know you're coming. 7pm......

We were taking an afternoon stroll down Xiangyang Lu today in our pajamas when we had our first ever encounter with Shanghai's high-tech parking meters. The meters aren't exactly new; according to the Shanghai Municipality website the first were installed in 2005. There were 141 meters at the beginning of the year installed across 22 road sections, but that number is now up to 555. Yes, we don't get out much, but we were still......

So the holiday season is upon us. We at Shanghaiist have always believed that after a year of toiling, we, more than anyone else, deserve the best gift of the season. Now that line of thinking has been established, the next step is, of course, narrowing down our shopping list. This year, we have our eyes on a Sony PSP. Actually, we’ve been eyeing the portable game console/music and video player ever since it came......

We recently came across an article that for some reason was lodged in our minds as being about male pregnancy. It turns out that it was this China Daily article about a man that was mistakenly tested for pregnancy (given a urine test) because the hospital thought he was a woman. Although we were disappointed, we did find something else that was interesting: an article originally from the Shanghai Daily that says that August 3rd......

GigShanghai: Dance rock, a smashed bass, a Tang Hui challenge...

We started out the night getting one of those haircuts that looks atrocious and sends you rummaging through your closet for a good hat. It took us forever to get a cab too, and we might have lost the one we did catch if the cop that yelled at us for almost jaywalking -- "过马路不看灯呀？" "Don't you look at the lights when you cross the road?" ... we pretended to not understand -- had decided......

Recent reviews of the best burgers in town made Shanghaiist want a drink -- a cocktail, to be exact. Don’t get us wrong, we love our local favorites -- we’re addicted to Xinjiang Black Beer now that it’s stocked at the nearby convenience store. We’re even known to occasionally take a healthy shot of baijiu alongside our Qingdao Beer during dinner. (At least, we think so -- we usually don’t remember the details of baijiu......

The other night while conversing with a group of Americans in a bar on Julu Lu (not Badlands, we promise), Shanghaiist -- who knows nothing about the US at all -- discovered that Texas is considered one of the oddest of the fifty States. At least, the survey we carried out (admittedly with a smallish sample), suggested that when Americans meet their fellow countrypersons and ask them where they’re from, the response that garners the......

With a name that sounded more like an advertisement for a Julu Lu massage parlor than a concert, we weren't sure what to expect from Free Touching, Sunday night's "free noise and improv" event at Live Bar (it didn't help that we misread 噪音 -- noise -- as something else). While there was no actual touching involved, it did turn out to be a very visceral experience. The show featured the Nakatani-Chen duo, a US-based......

Fumin Lu in between Changle and Julu Lu is a small yet concentrated swath of Shanghai’s “pink and pirated” trades. There are three opinions regarding the pink houses and the girls who work there: 1) Abhorrence, 2) Indifference, 3) Overly enthusiastic acceptance. But, spend enough time on Fumin Lu and you see the girls as normal people, which is more than we can say for the peddling creeps downtown. They buy boiled eggs from the......

Juan Vargas, filmmaker...

Camera conundrums?...

Shanghaiist is tired of living in a black hole of music. After our brother threatened to blackmail us if we asked him to send music AGAIN, we started thinking about alternatives. Most local shops have a selection that would suit a 13-year-old from the early 90s, but we have been able to find the Rolling Stones, Belle & Sebastian and PJ Harvey over the last three years. We got them at a stand inside the......

Cheapest beers in town...