Ah, sweet nostalgia. Long afternoons playing with kids whose names we don't remember, showing off our toys made of tin and plastic. Look at this wind-up chicken's manic pecking action! And you can play with my Constructicon, but only if you promise to be really, really careful with it. His name's Scrapper, and he's their leader, and he forms the right leg of DEVASTATOR! Look, you pull his head out like this, and then you make him stand, like so... more ›

Sorry all you Bruce Lee fans out there, but as government officials said yesterday, plans for a Bruce Lee memorial museum in the deceased actors Hong Kong home have been abandoned. more ›

Only just days after learning that Shanghai would not be allowed to host the final Asian leg of the Albert Einstein exhibition tour, a Swiss diplomat has given comments saying that Shanghai still has a chance to partake in this event. more ›

After 2.5 billion RMB and nearly four years of renovations and expansions, the National Museum of China finally reopened on Tuesday to select visitors. It tripled its previous size to over two million square feet and is now reportedly the largest museum in the world. It has 49 exhibitions rooms, more than one million cultural relics, an 800-seat theater, and a 300-seat conference hall. It also has a professional in-house filming studio for shooting programs about the collections, which are not allowed to leave the premises. more ›

• Cheese, chocolate, banking, watches, and neutrality. All of our favorite things about Switzerland. Now we can get experience all of them thanks to the Swiss Chamber of Commerce presenting Swiss Week. From October 18-25th you can experience a whole week of Swiss and Swiss-related events ranging from movies, to books and food. [City Weekend]
• 1421 author Gavin Menzies will be visiting Shanghai to give a series of lectures about how China discovered everything and is responsible for everything. Shanghai Talk interviewed him. Read the crazy. [Shanghai Talk]
• In a continuing string of exciting new museum and exhibition openings, Shanghai Normal University announced the opening of a textbook exhibit that explores the history of textbooks in China since the turn of the 19th century. And we thought things had peaked with the fungus museum. [Shanghai Daily]

If you've ever been curious about the failures of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, Taiwan is set next month to declassify confidential documents on his many attempts to take back China. Visitors, including us mainlanders, will be allowed to visit Back Tzuhu, a previously restricted section of Chiang's Mausoleum in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. The area was a wartime command center during the 1960s. From 1964 to the early 1970s, Chiang tried repeatedly to launch naval attacks, only to have each of them fail spectacularly. With each failure, Chiang's confidence in retaking the mainland eroded, and by 1972 the project had been abandoned. Source: South China Morning Post more ›

Everybody in China loves Jackie Chan. And now everybody in Shanghai could get the chance to go to the world's first Jackie Chan museum. The super-popular actor has allegedly donated one of his antique Chinese homes to the Shanghai government. more ›

• Rumor: MySpace to Close China Doors [JLM Pacific Epoch] "Recent rumors have said MySpace China may close down and withdraw from the Chinese market, reports DoNews. Unnamed sources said on Thursday that MySpace China may undergo major restructuring in the near future and adopt media as its new orientation."
• 'Reactionary' Ringtones Spark Arrests In Tibet [NPR] "Police in Tibet have swept markets in recent months looking for banned music. Chinese state media report that police have arrested several suspects for allegedly downloading to their cell phones music that the government considers 'reactionary.'"
• How much are those bronze heads really worth? [Danwei] "I have been studying China's old palace architecture for over 70 years. I think that two out of so many parts of the palace's enormous structure, the zodiac animal heads from the Old Summer Palace don't have much value in themselves. There is nothing remarkable about their cost or craftsmanship. They were just water faucets, and very coarse compared with other artifacts from the Old Summer Palace kept at Peking University and other places. These days, they can be easily manufactured at small factories in Beijing or Guangzhou. The artistic value is just not very high."

Photo from Sypro more ›

Photo by ranmachen more ›

"China's giant centre Yao Ming will undergo surgery Monday to fix a stress fracture in his left foot, the Houston Rockets announced on Saturday." more ›

Photo of Shanghai Museum, one of four locations offering a free entry trial next month, from mkools. more ›

Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com. more ›

We've seen the signs off of Yan'an for years, but yesterday Shanghaiist decided to take one for the team and visit a real dinosaur of a museum: The Shanghai Natural History Museum. As far as we can tell, we have a new ranking contender for saddest museum in Shanghai (and we've been to the Bund 'Museum' under the Monument to the People's Heroes.) The paint was crumbling, the stuffed animals were near the point of disintegration, and most of displays look like they were taken straight out of a 1950s science-fiction novel. We didn't get too close to the dinosaurs out of fear that they might collapse at any moment. That being said, there's something about this museum, schadenfreude perhaps, that made the whole 5 RMB visit worth it. more ›

Translation of captions:

OPPOSING THE SHANGHAI MAGLEV ONSTRUCTION PLAN: 10,000 RESIDENTS TAKE PART IN THE 'HARMONIOUS WALK' NEAR PEOPLE'S SQUARE more ›

NYT: China Censors a Film, Then Bans It Entirely more ›

Today is the 70th anniversary of the start of the Nanking Massacre which took place in 1937, and more than 8,000 people were gathered today in the Nanking Massacre Museum this morning in a memorial ceremony as you see in this picture from Shanghai Daily. The number of deaths that resulted in the six weeks of atrocities after the fall of Nanjing continues to be debated. It ranges, according to Wikipedia, from "some Japanese claims... more ›

Honestly, when China threw a shitfit after German chancellor Merkel met the Dalai Lama, we really didn't give a hoot, in part because we've given up on seeing our dream of Tibetan secession realized in our lifetimes. But one thing you might not have known is that this diplomatic contretemps spilled over to affect our fair city. There was supposed to be a week long symposium sponsored by Der Spiegel at the Duolun Museum... more ›

Ex-convict/drunk driver/pornstar Heiress/socialite/singer/designer Paris Hilton — fresh from her modelling gig with Fila Sportswear in Seoul — is now in Shanghai for the first time to attend Friday's 2007 MTV Awards and Style Gala at the Shanghai Grand Stage. Apparently, she didn't think the Hilton hotel would make her feel at home here, so she decided to check into the Grand Hyatt at the Jinmao instead. Shanghai Daily, believe it or not, has the scoop:... more ›

Still looking for something to do for Halloween? Here are a few parties that should be worth checking out. If you are stuck hanging around People's Square head over to the MOCA where you will find (besides interesting art) a wicked Halloween party featuring lots of killer tunes from Bananas Soundsystem. For those who aren't keen on going downtown, head out to Xujiahui where Harley's Bar will host Banana Monkey and more Banana DJ music. At Logo bar 3 bands are going to dress up as the Misfits, Sex Pistols and Ramones and churn out some gnarly tunes. Billed Punks for Monks, all proceeds from ticket sales will go to a charity helping the monks in Burma. more ›

... why not get a terracotta one instead? That statue on the right, ladies and gentlemen, is Roger Federer. more ›

JazzArt, as you might have heard, is a monthly jazz concert series held at a different gallery each month. They have become our favorite regular jazz event, not just because we happen to be involved with the planning and implementation but also because art galleries are fantastic places for jazz concerts in general. Also people who show up to these kind of concerts tend to really listen to the music, whereas in smoky bars at night many people come to chat, or conspicuously consume pricy bottles of booze, perhaps giving the occasional nod toward the music in the background when it happens to catch their attention. The JazzArt series has been wildly successful, much to the chagrin of the evil gallery owners who pulled out at the last minute of planning early this year. Drawing an estimated 250 people to last month's show, at least 300 people are expected to pack this month's concert on the 3rd floor of MOCA to the brim. So get there early in order to get a seat, as there will only be about 100 chairs. more ›

Shanghai prosecutors have charged former property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi with misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging value-added tax receipts, said a government source. more ›

Although Cirque du Soliel's Quidam opened a few weeks ago, Shanghaiist didn't get the chance to see the show until last night. Initially, we weren't exactly over the moon about seeing the Canadian troupe perform...to new age music...in tights...on one of our precious Friday nights. But, we were wrong. Insert foot into mouth here. more ›

The back cover of yesterday's Xinmin Evening News featured the photograph to the right accompanied by an article centered on Mr Ding, a worker who has been employed at Shanghai historic Jiangnan Shipyard for 42 years. The reason that the photographer wrote the article is because he finally got the chance, through a photography contest, to tour the limited-access factory that was founded in 1856. And the reason that the newspaper published the article is that the factory is set to be moved to a new location; the buildings are being repurposed to serve as logistics, administration and public service bases, and supermarkets for the 2010 World Expo Park. more ›

Property agents in Shanghai have come up with a novel way of giving house buyers important information about the home they intend to buy. Ask them about neighbourhood construction plans for malls, motorways and high rise appartments and they may take you to the third floor of the Urban Planning Museum in People's Square. There lies the model of the grand plan of the city centre for Expo 2010. more ›

Shanghai's Science and Technology Museum is getting somewhat of a workout of late. Firstly, it hosted perhaps 2007's biggest bash, and then the news that Canadian entertainers Cirque du Soleil will perform their long-running Quidam show at the museum forecourt from June 28th. more ›

At least, that's what the Swedish fashion retailer would like you to think, given the massive party it threw last night at the Pudong Science and Technology Museum, which included a brief appearance by Aussie pop queen Kylie Minogue. It's clear that expansion into Asia, specifically China, is high on H&M's priority list, so their media machine can be forgiven for grand pronouncements like "Asia is about to change" that show up in our local rags. more ›