Two nights ago, Canada’s CBC aired a documentary titled China’s Sexual Revolution. It was shot in Shanghai and Beijing using hidden cameras and interviews with academics and pop culture figures. While we haven’t yet seen the thing, it apparently cobbles together AIDS, bar culture, and the manufacture of sex toys to look at how China is “a country that’s quickly becoming X-rated.” In the trailer, the camera pans a Shanghai disco as the narrator solemnly... more ›

One of our favorite Chinese sites seems to have run afoul of the net nanny: vip.bokee.com has been on again off again, but perfectly viewable with a proxy. Using the proxy we saw an article about a list published in a Chengdu newspaper of the top-grossing authors in China, at least based on royalties from the sales of their books. At the top of the list was a Guo Jingming, a young author (born in... more ›

Baidu rolled a new feature as of yesterday—a person of the month, which you can see in their logo. They say that they pick the person based on searches done in their engine, so it's a bit like Google Trends meets Time Person of the Year on a monthly basis. This month it's Xu Sanduo (许三多), a character from a popular TV series called Soldier Sortie(士兵突击), which has become one of the more popular shows... more ›

Back in the late 1980s, we were of the opinion that the Oaktown (Oakland, California, USA) was a fetid, hopeless, de-industrialized, white-flight created shit-hole, but all of that was changed sometime around 1990 with the arrival of Oakland native MC Hammer onto the music scene. If America had gorged itself during a whole decade on the fashion excesses of pop stars, Hammer was like the long belch after the meal, but even if we had to squint and shield our eyes whenever MC Hammer was on MTV, before long, sparkle shirts, parachute pants, baggy suits, and spandex shorts with suspenders—standard issue Hammer wear—became firmly etched in American pop culture history, and in retrospect, we can say we are the better for it. more ›

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: more ›

Have all your friends abandoned you? Got a case of the holiday blues? What better pick-me-up could there be than Chinese Brit-pop? (Just play along, folks.) more ›

Via Wired :

A Japanese-developed, adult-themed computer game has incensed some of China's online gamers who deem it a bawdy slur on the classic Chinese novel, Dream of the Red Chamber. more ›

(And no, we're not into little girls.) more ›

Now that Shanghaiist has firmly established itself and is roundly recognized as a boob lover, we bring you this bit of deliciously titillating news: Hooters, the casual American restaurant chain, known for its scantily clad, buxom young waitresses, and not much else, is opening its second Shanghai location ... in Pudong. The first one, in Gubei, opened in 2004. more ›

A brief note regarding the City Diner we told you about not too long ago: We have learned that it is supposed to open this week, either today or Friday, depending on who you believe. We assume the source that said today is reliable, because he was seated in one of the City Diner's booths working on a computer. We'll explain: We ate at Eat, Drink, Man, Woman on Saturday (delicious, as always) and afterwards decided to snoop around upstairs to see what the diner was looking like. Honestly, it looked a lot like Eat, Drink, Man, Woman -- the same beige pseudo-suede upholstery. We were kind of hoping for some red vinyl and at least one jukebox. The only things that really screamed "diner" were the retro Coca-Cola fridge, the hanging lights and the neon sign outside. So, we figured they still had some redesigning to do. But the guy with the computer sitting in the booth (who we didn't notice at first -- good thing we didn't steal that wine) said it was scheduled to open on Monday. And who would doubt a guy sitting in a booth working on a computer? Well, we would. We just called iiiit!, another one of Eduardo Vargas's establishments, and they said the City Diner will open Friday, but that it didn't have a phone number yet. If any of you decide to go with the computer guy's word, let us know what you find. more ›

Tim Kao, musician more ›

As we told you in November, Rolling Stone, the once relevant music magazine, has plans for China. Well, now they have materialized. The inaugural issue, with Chinese rocker Cui Jian on the cover, hit newsstands over the weekend. Pictured is the copy we bought for 20 RMB on Nanjing Xi Lu (price includes a Rolling Stone baseball cap). Based on interviews with a couple news vendors in Beijing, The Times of London has proclaimed the magazine a "smash hit": more ›

Rolling Stone is set to be published in China, with a mix of local content and translations from the US edition. more ›

Yu Hua (余华) the author of To Live, a novel that was adapted by Zhang Yimou into a film, released his newest work of fiction in a decade this past July. Entitled Brothers (兄弟), this novel tells the story of a pair of (step) brothers and the trials and tribulations of childhood and adolescence in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. more ›