If there was a world record for the quickest post-death biographies ever written, this one would probably win. Two Chinese writers have written an "instant book" on Michael Jackson spanning 130,000 words... in just 48 hours. Entitled "Moonwalk in Paradise - the Michael Jackson biography", the book became available for pre-order on Friday and landed on China's bookshelves on Saturday. The writers "didn't sleep for two days" and survived off of coffee and cigarettes until the book was done. Neither have ever met or interviewed Jackson, instead simply compiling the story from their "accumulated knowledge about the king of pop." Going by what our writing tends to look like after two days of no sleep, we bet the second half of this bio looks like brilliant, not-quite-lucid nonsense. Source: China Daily more ›

The funeral for Chinese film director Xie Jin (谢晋) held yesterday afternoon at the Longhua Funeral Parlour attracted 10,000 people — a crowd that included both ordinary citizens and celebrities according to Xinhua. more ›

This was not a very happy week for the -ist network as one of our own, Phillyist co-editor Star C. Foster, passed away early in the week. Her wit, intelligence, and good nature shone through the site, making Phillyist an immensely fun read. She was loved by many and will be missed by all. more ›

This is from the website of Shanghai Racquet Club and Apartments: more ›

Ba Jin, one of China's foremost writers of the 20th century, passed away in Shanghai on October 17. Ba Jin was known as an anarchist intellectual that attacked the traditional Confucian family orthodoxy as well as capitalists and other scumbags he didn't like. He was condemned during the Cultural Revolution and eventually "rehabilitated" in 1977. His literary career started in the 1929 with the publication of his first novel, Miewang, but he only became known as one of China's literary lights with the 1931 publication of the novel Jia 《家》(Family). Post-1977, Ba Jin began to take stock of his own life and past, writing several memoir books, the most famous being Random Thoughts, or 《随想录》 as it's better known in Chinese. Ba Jin also has been the chief editor of Harvest or 《收获》 literary magazine since 1957, a magazine which focuses on discovering new literary talent. This magazine is still going strong today; you can easily find it in any bookshop or even in some of the magazine and periodical stands on the street. more ›