The friend who invited me to Huaxi's 50th anniversary first advertised the weekend as some kind of helicopter festival: "Hey free helicopter rides, wanna go?" First instinct: No thanks, don't want to die in China. But then he told me it was Huaxi, now internationally renowned as "China's Richest Village" and home to one of the tallest buildings in the country, a state-of-the-art medical hospital, a fake Great Wall, and 2,000 super wealthy villagers all living in huge houses with luxury cars. more ›

A 20-year-old Slovakian model fell to her death last night at 1:20am from the 18th floor of a high-rise on Xietu Lu. She is confirmed to have died as a result of the fall and "no foul play is suspected." From Xinmin reports, it sounds like there was possibly a party going on at the time, as neighbors report loud music. Dongfang Daily reports that the apartment served as housing for a modeling agency, and saw residents change quite often. We sincerely hope that's the last we hear of people falling off high-rises this week. more ›

Ladies, sharpen your high-heel spikes, it's beauty pageant season! 34 young women from across the country have qualified as finalists competing for the right to represent China at the 61st Miss World pageant. After national finals for each participating country conclude, a parade of 120 of the world's most fertile specimens beautiful will take place in London on November 6th. We've brought you a gallery of the some of the Chinese contestants involved with the pageant, and we'd be highly surprised if one of the women featured here isn't the lucky winner of a British Visa after the Chinese finals occur on September 15th. more ›

Thanks to Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap, now we have the answer! On a recent visit to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum's giant Shanghai model, Minter witnessed the model cleaners themselves: barefooted youth trampling trees around the edges, dusting only the "areas visible to visitors." more ›

Continuing a string of hits for Asian fashion, today the edgy V magazine published their 70th edition "and this landmark issue for V celebrates all things eastern, from the Heroes who continue to inspire us to the Muses who make the creative world turn." They've done an excellent job profiling some of the most intriguing stars in Chinese fashion, art, and entertainment. Aside from interviewing Gong Li and Nancy Kwan, two of the most recognizable Chinese screen sirens in film history, the mag dedicates pages to the rising models of China’s Longteng agency and the established catwalkers: Liu Wen who was the first-ever Asian Victoria's Secret's runway model, Shu Pei, face of Vera Wang, and Sun Feifei the up and coming "it" model. Sir David Tang of Shanghai Tang has a chat with Kate Moss, Diane Von Furstenberg and Dolce and Gabbana talk about their trips to China. "Vanishing" artist Liu Bolin and the imprisoned Ai Weiwei also make cameos. more ›

Models showcase the body painting works by New Zealand artist Men Bourk and Chinese painter Ren Zhongni at the Chongqing-Auckland International Body Painting Festival on May 8, 2011. The artists combined various iconic images of the two cities into their paintings. more ›

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A Taiwanese sporting goods brand had the brilliant idea that a crowd of 20 pantless Taiwanese models traipsing through Taipei subways could be a great way to market their "no pants day" campaign. Hmm, seems to have worked well so far. Video after the jump! more ›

Well, well, well...looks like golden boy Godfrey Gao isn't the only one scoring huge fashion gigs these days. This season has morphed into a full-fledged Chinese model invasion. If you needed more proof than Vogue and Louis Vuitton turning all oriental on us, here's Riccardo Tisci's cast for Givenchy's haute couture collection. As you'll immediately notice, every face is Asian and moreover, it's the Chinese models that dominate the picture. more ›

The Chinese love Louis Vuitton so it only makes sense that Louis Vuitton would love us right back. They'd been wooing us with a Chinese-inspired collection which was a bit mehh but their new ad campaign really hits the sweet spot. I give you...Godfrey Gao. more ›

More photos on 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 (and here). more ›

'He is a sicko,' B.C. model's boyfriend says about murder suspect [CanWest News Service] more ›

Last month, we highlighted to you a post by Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap in which he laments over the sorry state of expat advertising after spotting a full page print ad taken up by the Dragonfly spa chain in (what seemed like) every English language magazine in Shanghai. The ad featured a Caucasian man waxing himself with a 'clean' strip while his right hand (what looked rather like a chicken claw) sported multi-coloured nails that were supposed to be a "tribute to the Olympic rings". The campaign became the talk of the town, but not in the way Dragonfly had hoped for. As it turned out, the ad had the effect of freaking out just about everyone in town who saw it (and possibly up north in Beijing too). more ›

UPDATE: As we suspected, Miss Venezuela did win the contest. more ›

The body of a 22 year old model, Diana Gabrielle O'Brien, from Salt Spring, British Columbia, has been found on Chongming Island, where she was on an overnight modeling assignment. We haven't found any report of it yet in the Chinese press, but numerous Canadian media are already on the story. Apparently, O'Brien had not been happy in Shanghai with the modeling assignments she was getting here, and had already been telling friends that she was planning to go home just one month into her three-month contract. Grieving family and friends of O'Brien have had no news from the Shanghai police or Foreign Affairs of how O'Brien died and whether she was murdered, but they have been informed that an autopsy will be conducted soon. O'Brien's boyfriend, Joel Berry, who has known her for 10 years (and who was intending to marry her), says she was not into drugs or alcohol or anything, so he couldn't help but "think it was anything except foul play". more ›

"You can't say whether this is karma or not
because nobody wants to see a big disaster happen.
When a natural disaster strikes, you cannot avoid it.
Perhaps the Heavens are meting out punishment in order to
make people protect the natural environment better.
這不可以說是報不報應，因每個人也不想發生嚴重災難，
而且天災的事想避也避不到，可能是上天給予的懲罰，
要人們更加保護自然環境。" more ›

Looking for something to do tonight? Enjoy explosions in the sonic soundscape (we're not sure what that means, either)? If you get a chance we recommend heading down to 4Live where the Ex-Models, from New York, will be playing along with Snapline (Beijing) and Shanghai's very own Muscle Snog. Both Snapline and Muscle Snog have been getting a lot of attention this year, so here is your chance to see why. more ›

We have a confession to make: We have been known to watch the occasional episode of America's Next Top Model. Odd that while living in America we refused to watch trashy American reality shows (other than The Real World, which we allowed in on a grandfather clause) and now that we live in China and own a Filipino TV satellite (that we won't shut up about) we seemingly can't get enough of them. What can we say — this place makes you do strange things. more ›

Since making a Snake Plissken-style escape from Pudong, the Puxi landmark that has inexorably drawn our eye as we survey the okay-for-the price view from our garret hasn't been the Sauronesque spire of the Marriott, nor the guy who does his Ghost Dog workout on the roof opposite each morning, but rather an advert for pants. Or "briefs" to those of you who've escaped the yoke of Queen Elizabeth II. Calvin Klein briefs, to be precise. more ›

Calling all Shanghai entrepreneurs! Come meet new faces and get to know other like-minded individuals at this week's NextStep event which features Tony Mustafa of Essential Finance. All are welcome, no membership required, and no cover charge.


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He's performed shows around the world from London to Los Angeles, from Vegas to Berlin and from Zurich to Tokyo. Earlier this year, world-class magician Marco Tempest, the Virtual Magician, was hired by Daihatsu for Auto Shanghai, apparently the world's second largest car fair. Watch him in this newly released video as he goes around Shanghai, rehearses for the big show and impresses the girls backstage. Pretty interesting stuff. At least we now know one car company is not just counting on the tall svelte models dressed in metallic mini-skirts to pull in the crowds. more ›

The emergence of China as a commercial superpower is, by some way, the most important economic phenomenon of our time. In the last few years, analysts of the global economy have had to rewrite their computer models and recalibrate their slide rules to cope with the People's Republic. more ›

Shanghai Oriental TV draws our attention to a new floral-themed restaurant in Nanjing by the name of Lanfugong (兰芙宫) where body-painted female models dressed in nothing but a pair of underwear appear for a show while you're having your meal. And for RMB 1,000 a pop, you too can get up on stage and create your own masterpiece on a model's body! Apparently the restaurant has some checks on the "quality of the character" of the budding body-painters before they lay their hands on the models paintbrushes, but no details were given on what the "checks" consist of. more ›

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: more ›

Pioniers, a minor league team in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2007, he was signed by the Beijing Tigers of the China Baseball League (more info here). The CBL season already over, Kim recently answered some of our questions via email. more ›

We're not sure Bai Ling's latest lady parts on display counts as news, given the fact that her private parts are more well-publicized than she is. But, combine the Bai-sexual actress' escapades with Zhang Ziyi's body double's web-search for love; add the biggest dick in China; and throw in a PRC plug for "sexy famous models... touching each other," and we'll take the bait. more ›

With another London Graduate Fashion Week at an end as of Wednesday, June 6th, its time to look back at how some of China’s overseas hopefuls faired against their fellow students from around the world. Whether or not they will make an impact on the world of fashion in the future, only time will tell. more ›

With 2005's film version of Memoirs of a Geisha, Chinese people across the world had more reason to hate Zhang Ziyi and foamed at the mouth yet again saying, We’re not Japanese. You would have thought that by now the West would have cottoned onto the message. more ›