Turn into a tequila monster and recall your high school Spanish, because it's time for the Mexican Independence Day party tonight at Maya! If tequila isn't your poison, perhaps you'd like to see just how deep The Rabbit Hole goes with absinthe cocktails. And for non-drinkers (and drinkers) out there, head over for a good old laser tag tournament brought to you by X-Club, or curl up with a new book from Paul French's book launch at Glamour Bar. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more! more ›

• Just the mere whiff of Chinese investment in the Italian debt market had stocks going bonkers on Monday. WSJ points out that, weirdly enough, none of the rumors are really substantiated and this anonymous Italian official just happened to mention the prospects one day before Italian bonds for 2018/2020 go on sale...
• That's Shanghai gives us a nice review of Paul French's new non-fiction murder mystery Midnight in Peking.
• LA Times explains why the mooncake is very much the fruitcake of China. (Agreed - dessert should never feel like a punishment!)

We've reported numerous times on the sad state of architectural preservation here in Shanghai, but we will probably never get as deep as Shanghai history buff Paul French. French has now taken the time to compile a list of the worst losses of 2010 (there were a LOT of them) and it's well worth a read. more ›

In just the last few years, China has been diagnosed as the "most diabetic country in the world" and seen 70 to 90 million of its people be categorized as obese. And Paul French, co-author of the book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines Will Change a Nation has been documenting the country's rising weight. more ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. more ›

Paul French is the author of Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand and Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium War to Mao. He is currently re-investigating the unsolved case of Pamela Werner, a young English girl horrifically murdered in Peking in 1937, to be published as Murder in Peking by Penguin Books. Today, he writes about some historic buildings we lost in 2009 thanks to thoughtless Shanghai development. more ›

Earnshaw Books, your favorite purveyor of China-related reading material, is pleased to announce that it will host an evening of conversation, books and live jazz to celebrate the release this month of two new tomes - Shanghai Story Walks by Yvette Ho Madany and I Sailed with Chinese Pirates by Aleko Lilius, featuring a new foreword by Paul French. more ›

Shanghai-based journalist Paul French's latest book is one that ought to excite all you ol' Shanghai history buffs (and press nostalgists as well) - an examination of the convulsive history of the China press corps between the 1820s and leading up to the revolution of 1949. more ›

Thomas Crampton, on a recent trip to Shanghai, catches up with Paul French of Access Asia. French says that so much of what Doctoroff, CEO, Greater China of J. Walter Thompson, and others claim as pioneering was done 80 years ago by adman Carl Crow (of whom he wrote a biography). We're still not quite sure what to think of French's views yet, but we know Doctoroff's Twelve Facts about the Confucian Consumer left us all but confused. more ›

During his discussion with Kerry Brown and Duncan Hewitt at the recently held Shanghai International Literary Festival, Paul French quoted British environmentalist Jonathon Porritt as saying that "the biggest problem with the environment in China is that nobody in China could care less about it". more ›

Now into its fifth year, M on the Bund’s Shanghai International Literary Festival kicks off this weekend and once again has an impressive line up featuring a string of famous names and expert figures from across the book world. Running for the next three weekends, the festival offers Shanghai’s literati the chance to see some of the best Chinese and international writers. With so many great events to choose from (you can buy tickets and view the full line-up here) it’s hard to select highlights, but below are Shanghaiist’s picks from this weekend’s guests… more ›

American in Shanghai, a fascinating and entertaining insight into the remarkable career of an entrepreneurial ex-pat. Shanghaiist spoke with the author to find out more. more ›

• A book talk by Paul French at Glamour Bar: Access Asia's Paul French is a reluctant Shanghaiist reader who actually made an appearance at our recent Halloween party. Perhaps more importantly, he is an author who puts out about a book a year. His latest, Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand, is out now from Hong Kong University Press. He'll be talking about the book at Glamour Bar tomorrow at 4 pm. Here's a bit about the book and Mr. Crow: more ›

The Shanghai Literary Festival starts this weekend, and according to one of the authors participating in the two-week-long event -- he wrote this in an email to us -- Shanghaiist readers "need some intellectual fodder." And the festival is, indeed, full of it (fodder, we mean). Really, quite an impressive list of authors will be in attendance. The man who is getting most of the attention, rightfully so, is John Banville, who last year won the Man Booker prize for his novel The Sea. Other highlights include travel writer Pico Iyer (Video Night in Kathmandu) and Ma Jian, whose travel essay Red Dust likely occupies a spot on most of your bookshelves. Also speaking will be longtime Shanghai resident, and occasional Shanghaiist reader, Paul French, who you may even see at tonight's Shanghaiist Happy Hour. more ›

Admitted Luddite and one-time Shanghaiist contributor Paul French sent Shanghaiist, and several others, this email recently (or, knowing Paul, he had his secreatry send it). We thought we'd share: more ›