Chuck Culpepper of the Los Angeles Times has been tracking this and as of his latest posting yesterday, the Beijing Olympics "MPC" leaders are — you guessed it — Armenia. Australia is No. 2. USA? 30th. China? 40th. (We have a feeling the Aussies might climb back to No. 1 after their efforts in the pool this morning.) Australia is not the two-time defending MPC champs, however. That honor goes to the Bahamas, which has the population of a Shanghai city block. They were tops in Sydney and in Athens. more ›

The last time an anchor from our favourite TV channel made it to the news, he created such a brouhaha that culminated in the eviction of one coffee company from the Forbidden City. In the news this time is New Zealand-born anchor Edwin Maher who for many years before arriving in China was a weatherman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Los Angeles Times published a profile of Maher that started it all off. It... more ›

There isn't a live music update this week, but it's art shows galore TONIGHT. Three picks that aren't in your conventional Moganshan Lu / Taikang Lu destinations. more ›

China hurting in world opinion polls [China Post]

In a survey covering 18 countries which account for 56 percent of the world's population, 38 percent said China can be trusted to act responsibly while 52 percent said the country can't be trusted.

It is said that the first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Of course, this begs the question: recovery from which problem? Whatever the impetus for these changes, China has finally admitted to taking the organs of executed prisoners. Does this mean an end of the free-flow, all-you-can-afford, buffet-bonanza on the virile organs of hapless young peasants executed under one of China's 70 capital crimes? more ›

Shanghai malls haven't been doing too hot lately. The Cloud Nine Shopping Mall in Zhongshan Park can claim to be "the city's biggest shopping center in terms of floor space," but suffers from a severe lack of tenants and had to cede their home-grown basement grocery store to Carrefour in in June due to lackluster sales. In July, the Los Angles Times exposed Shanghai's luxury malls as "ghost malls", spearing Plaza 66 and others for renting space to designer name brands at cut-rates in order to create a façade of prosperity and high fashion for the city. more ›

We read an interesting piece from the Los Angeles Times about "the left-behind children" or 留守兒童 (liushou ertong): children from rural areas who are left behind when one or both parents migrate to the cities to find work. Evidently, there are as many as 20 million of these kids, or about one for every six migrant workers in China, though this article (in Chinese) states that the actual number depends on how you're counting them. For example, if one or both parents have to be gone, long-term, for the child to be considered "left-behind." That report also includes some interesting data, such as the fact that 19 percent of "left-behind" kids never talk to anyone about their thoughts and feelings, while 46 percent of them occasionally talk to someone. Significant proportions of them have problems with schoolwork, lie and steal, and do other bad things like get in fights and spend too much time on the internet/computer playing games. Of course, most of the parents are working far from their children and families not because they want to, but because they have to. Nonetheless, some still lay part of the blame on the parents, because you can't expect the kids' teachers or grandparents to fill the void that the parents have left. more ›

Photo by monkeyking taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos 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 Los Angeles Times reports that Chinese children are being so unfilial these days that they have to fine them in order to get them spend more time with their elderly parents: more ›

We just put our copy of China's first Rolling Stone in a protective bag -- it might be more of a collector's item than we previously imagined. The Independent is reporting that less than one month after it's debut, the popular glossy has been forced to stop publication: more ›

It doesn't get juicier than this folks, least not for the sexually repressed Shanghaiist. Don Lee's Los Angeles Times article on the revival of the mistress or "second wife" in China is a great piece of work. (Think he used Shanghaiist for research?) Polka dotted boxers, rich 23-year-old mistresses auctioning villas and Lexus cars online, the "Mistress Killer" (a private investigator that helps uncover illicit relations, usually at the behest of the first wife), amid the backdrop of China's "spiritual vacuum". Keep your kids away, it's gettin' a little risque in here! Of course, this is old hat for most Chinese people, for whom the Hong Kong businessman with the mistress in Shenzhen is nigh well a cliche. In related news (in Chinese), 40,000 people signed up to take civil service examinations in Shanghai, vying for a mere 2,300 spots. Officialdom never looked so good. more ›