Results tagged “pirates”

Much like China's ongoing efforts against actual piracy, it seems that the government has been taking steps to curb piracy of the intellectual variety. Shifting from targeting individual sellers to wholesalers and manufacturers, Shanghai's "Cultural Inspection Team" has apparently confiscated over 20,000 pirated cds and 5,000 books in 246 "significant" busts in preparation for the Expo. If you do the math, though, that's about 100 cds/books per bust, which doesn't seem that significant to us. As it seems the goods aren't even made in Shanghai, we're not altogether too impressed.

We've had a couple laughs over Somalian pirates before, but they've now taken a turn for the scary. It seems China's luck in dealing with them in the past has run out and it's now facing its first real crisis: Pirates have hijacked a Chinese bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean and are threatening to execute the 25 Chinese crew members if anybody attempts to save them.

We love pirates. Eyepatches, peg legs, swashbuckling- you name it, we love it. We even have a soft spot for the Somali pirates, because somewhere deep inside of us, we know that they're keeping the dream alive. Of course, these days it's pretty hard to be a pirate, and it's not as glamorous a lifestyle as it once was. Times have gotten hard: valuable cargo now has military escorts, or avoid the Gulf of Aden altogether. Heck, even Dolphins are getting in the way of your business.

It may be really dorky of us, but we love ourselves some pirates. No, really - we were dressing up in frocks and corsets and eye patches and talking about 1800s naval warfare loooong before Johnny Depp came around and made it cool. So when we found out that a pirate-themed rum bar had opened up literally around the corner from our apartment, we nearly gagged from our glee.

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.

Those pesky Somali pirates are having a tough couple of days. One day after three of them got picked off by U.S. Navy Seals, another pirate raid was thwarted by a different type of amphibious mammal.

• Meanwhile in China… Sweet Powerpoint-style Graphics of Government Growth Plans [GOOD] "As someone who works in design, and the visual communication of information (like our weekly Transparencies or our recent infographic challenge to explain the financial crisis), I find this wonderful. Sure, it’s like every bad trick in the powerpoint/clipart book has been ruthlessly piled upon these slides. But still, to see typically boring, impenetrable government plans presented in a visual manner that seems sincere in its attempt to communicate with anyone is fascinating."
• Chinese 'gold farmers' making a living playing computer games [The Guardian] "These virtual industries sound surreal, but they are fast entering the mainstream. According to a report by Richard Heeks at Manchester University, an estimated 400,000 Asian workers are now employed in gold farming in a trade worth up to £700m a year. With so many gamers now online, these industries are estimated to have a consumer base of five million to 10 million, and numbers are expected to grow with widening internet access."
• A Chinese Pirate Unmasks: Letter from China [The New Yorker] "In his Internet experiment, Wang has added a compelling twist on the nature of Chinese nationalism. He did not simply want to prove that patriots would predictably bristle at the criticism, but that Chinese readers of all stripes would listen to criticism more closely from an outsider, even if they did not agree with it."

Photo from fateless_gypsy

So the movie did finally get made after all. Last Thursday evening at the Paramount was the premiere of Milk & Fashion, touted as the first film to feature "non-Asian actors speaking Chinese in lead roles of a feature film for the first time ever". The crowd gathered as early as 7 pm to feast on the buffet. The room was packed with a diverse population of foreigners, Shanghainese ladies and numerous dubious characters. The seats were all taken. The sound system was too loud, and at 8.30, they began with a series of pop singers who performed for a crowd who couldn't seem to care less. The hosts were unconvincing and their cues badly rehearsed, ‘milking’ the applause conspicuously.

The weekend is finally here, and despite the buzz surrounding Linkin Park on Sunday, there are plenty of other shows that are also worth checking out. Friday, Yuyintang warms things up for Linkin Park fans with four local nu-metal bands strutting their stuff and letting out their best screams. While over at 4Live, Pixel Toy, from Hong Kong, provide an eccentric mix of Cantonese pop electronica. Opening for them is Banana Monkey. Phreaktion in celebration...

On Friday, if you happen to be looking for a chill night of music that is frequently plopped in the shoe gazer genre (sucks for those of us too fat to stare at our own shoes), then elusive Shanghai band 33 Island will be entertaining a captive audience (people staring at shoes) along with musical comrades, Muscle Snog at 4Live. If, by chance you aren't into shoes, or gazing at them, then tonight will be a little slow, making it a good night for some quiet self reflection. Or then again, maybe not.

Xingfu Lu is the cozy little street off to the side of busy Huashan Lu that is home to both Pirates, Logo Bar, and now the best cooked fish we've had in Shanghai, thanks to Chongqing eatery Xingfu 131.

For those of you who aren't quite ready to prance around in a swimming suit showing off your pasty white, jell-o like spare tire, don't fret there are plenty of quality bands playing in the dimly lit bars where t-shirts are required. The Scoff an energetic (pogo friendly) garage band from Beijing will headline the 2nd installment of 4live's Young Beijing series. At Live bar, Boys Climbing Ropes celebrate the arrival of summer with a final show before 2 members head back to Canada for vacation. If that wasn't enough to keep you busy on a Friday night, Pirates Bar is throwing its hat in the ring with Electronicat and amazing, one man electro/noise pop band from Europe. Saturday the Go Team! will be strutting their stuff at Absolute house, Rock It will be in full swing and for those of you into something a little quieter, the Dream Factory is holding an acoustic guitar night. For those of you into hip-hop or Dj's with skill (not the laptop variety) then head to 4Live for the DMC championship.

As regular readers of Variety magazine, Shanghaiist was not surprised to read that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which opens today in Chinese theatres, has been slightly cut-down by government censors.

Shanghai. It is all happening. Here's the proof:

Graffiti and urban art have always, at their cores, been intimately tied to the human condition. Today, in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, bids of “it’s time to go” are scrawled on buildings near the dictator’s home. In tattered Lebanon, chimera-chasing artists spray images of carefree children flying kites on Beirut’s bombed walls. In Northern Ireland’s blood-bathed tug-of-war, both Republican and Loyalist camps produce iconographic murals to mark their territories. Even in politically stable climates, urban art is telling of present social reality. After all, art pursued purely in aestheticism’s noble name is an indulgence afforded only once certain degrees of social, economic and political comfort have been met.

Still recovering from your May Holiday partying? Well, there's no respite. Here are a few things that Shanghaiist is keeping an eye on over the coming week.

Looking for something to do after our happy hour?

There are a lot of tempting events coming up this weekend. But please don't invite us, we're saving up for Kenny G.

In August 2005 we told you about former Growing Pains star Jeremy Miller's frenzy of acting activity here in Shanghai, but after a series of public appearances and tete-a-tetes with us media folks, he disappeared off the radar. We assumed that he was making the movie Milk and Fashion, which was plugged during all his appearances, and which we figured were more or less orchestrated for that purpose, since he normally doesn't appear in public and pose for pictures with kids for the hell of it.

Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on a Civic Building, Blank on a Blank, and Penguins on a Freeway (warning: sad).

At least they don't lag behind in anything important!

Though it's not like any of you care, since any movie that can break Spider-Man 2's box office record in the US is damn well going to be showing up on DVD here (it might have, already?) The New Zealand press reports:

In the latest chapter in the game of oneupsmanship between Hong Kong and Shanghai, the Walt Disney Company officially announced their intention to build a theme park in our fair city, scheduled to open in 2012. Thrill Network reports: