For this week's edition of Opinionist, we present to you some of the thoughts of Ho Kwon Ping, founder and executive chairman of the Banyan Tree Group which owns and operates a chain of award-winning premium resorts, hotels and spas, surrounding the great Sichuan earthquake. Ho, who owns resorts in Lijiang, Shangri-La and Sanya, had a close shave with the earthquake as his flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong was almost taking off when the......

In this week's edition of Opinionist, we present to you an excerpt of the speech made by Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong made at the Society of Publishers in Asia's awards dinner on the 19th anniversary of the June 4 incident. The senior writer of the Singapore-based Straits Times was detained by Chinese authorities in April 2005 for over 1,000 days on charges of spying for Taiwan. In this speech, Ching Cheong spoke at length......

In this weekend's edition of Opinionist, we present to you the China-relevant portions of Lee Kuan Yew's latest interview with Haslinda Amin of Bloomberg News. At 84 this year, Lee was Singapore's first Prime Minister and current Minister Mentor. In this excerpt, Lee gives his take on recent anti-Chinese sentiment, China's challenges going forward and what China can learn from Singapore in handling the Western media. The full transcript (PDF) of the interview can be......

Xinhua has an interesting opinion piece about the recent unbanning on mobile phones and computers in Cuba. First, the title of the article: 从免于匮乏的自由开始 meaning "Starting with the freedom from want". The political significance of the phrase "freedom from want" comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address, and comes, as we say nowadays, bundled with three other freedoms: speech and expression, religion, and fear. After reviewing history, the author then begins to......

NOTE: The opinions expressed in "Opinionist" columns are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Shanghaiist. After logging on to various networking sites and instant messengers this week I started to see a similar sentence attached to a number of handles and headers. They were all some variation on the following idea: China is my adopted country, I love it here but recent events in Tibet are giving me a......

In Shanghai there are a couple of early week shows that are worth checking out. Tonight, Too Dumb to Die, a bohemian group of gypsy vaudeville musicians who have rode their oddly tall bikes from Istanbul will take the stage out at Yuyintang. Sound interesting? Well, Shanghaiist thinks so, and can't wait to see them perform. While tomorrow, Yuyintang will host German hardcore punk band, No Opinion. Shanghaiist had the chance to catch No Opinion......

Looks like we spoke too soon. Just when we told you that Chinese media were getting the hang of the art of spin, look what we found in today's Shanghai Daily. Not one, but two pieces of pure, unadulterated propaganda that would make any Xinhua editor blush. Oh wait a minute, they actually came from Xinhua. The first piece, entitled Multi-party systems far from perfect in delivering stability to people, started off: SOME people say......

The Xinmin Evening Post announced today the winners of the third annual City of Shanghai Outstanding Website Awards. This year a committee of specialists chose 58 winners in 13 categories to receive awards, categories including Best Portals, E-Commerce Sites, Sites serving Women and Children, Higher Education Websites, and Sites for the "New Countryside". The website that the Evening Post chose to highlight was the near-to-our-hearts Shanghai Daily, the only English-language site out of nine to......

Big brand names such as Burberry, Dior, Zegna were singled out by a city watchdog for false-content claims. Surprisingly, these are products sold in the malls. For example, the report claims the cashmere content of a MNG coat was only 1.7 percent, not the 20 percent it claimed. Some products allegedly even have too much formaldehyde. Photo from Shanghai Sky. Shanghaiist features a "Photo of the Day", daily pictures of life around the city.......

300,000: That's the number of North Korean refugees believed to be living illegally in the Yanbian region on the northeastern border which is bracing itself for another influx of refugees. AFP reports that apart from ethnic Korean Chinese nationals, state-approved and underground churches are providing these refugees with shelter and aid. RMB 600: That's how much the Chinese government will pay parents in rural areas with no more than one son or two daughters......

How does the other half live? Shanghaiist is talking about our print media counterparts — you know, the ones that have actual deadlines and office space to fuss over. We won’t pretend to put ourselves in their shoes (well, some of us might, seeing as how we occasionally swing both ways — in the non-biblical sense, of course), but we can, at least appreciate an alliterative headline, a punchy lead, and some slick, savvy reporting.......

Miss World, Miss USA, Miss Hong Kong, and now here comes Miss Blogger PRC! Earlier this month, BlogChina, a poupular -- you guessed it -- Chinese blog site held a nationwide beauty contest for female bloggers. Both the public and a panel of celebrity judges took part in deciding the outcome. In addition to the usual “hotness” factor, contestants’ writing/blogging talent also played a significant role, supposedly. One look at the final awards had us......

Opinion is probably going to vary on Google's new name, but Shanghaiist isn't too fond of it and we agree with what this fellow said on his blog: 我第一眼看到这个名字的时候，是一种莫名的失望感觉，很酷的Google变成了有点俗气的“谷歌”，让人很失落。不过这其实也反映了中美两国的文化差异， Google给人的是一种很新颖的个性化体验，让人感觉酷酷的，而谷歌给人的感觉就像是很传统很乡土的意味，就像“家宝”这个名字一样，给人一种憨厚的感觉，当然换个说法就是“老土”。 Basically, he was disappointed with this new name because Google used to seem really cool to him, whereas the new name strikes him as kind of dull, old-fashioned and plain. Before those of you who agree start spitting out words like "philistine" you should read......

Shanghaiist is sure that this announcement will come as a relief to all of you misplaced upturned-collar-polo-shirt-wearing frat boys who swear by the Lacoste crocodile: a Shanghai appeals court has ruled that the French company will not have to pay that creativity-challenged Singaporean company, Crocodile, $1 and a public apology. So ends -- for now, at least -- an epic court battle over crocodile-use rights (involving an irritatingly petty punishment), only for the issue to......