For all you Time Out fans out there, last week the popular magazine launched its own Shanghai centric website. We think it’s time for a review. more ›

It's been a while since we've seen A Christmas Carol, and we tend to forget exactly why we're so drawn to it. To put it lightly, Shanghai Repertory Theater reminded us in spades with an overwhelmingly heartwarming rendition. It was like Dickens on overdrive: Scrooge was crotchety, Bob Cratchit was an exemplar of optimistic vivacity, and little Tiny Tim charmed our socks off with unfeigned innocence. In the course of a short hour and a half, we forgot the cultural importance of the play, and entered into the virtues and vices of mankind, something that Dickens was aiming for long before his play became the centerpiece of the Christmas canon. more ›

We've told you about chef cum entrepreneur extraordinaire Eduardo Vargas and the many, many pots he has his hands in around Shanghai's culinary scene. The latest, and potentially greatest, is the unassumingly chic Bistro Burger, down on the Fumin-Donghu expat strip. Trust us, it's worth it. more ›

Japanese filmmaker Satoru Mizushima (水島総) was not too happy about Nanking, the American documentary about the Nanking Massacre. So he set out to create his own film The Truth about Nanjing (南京の真実, Nanking no shinjitsu) to set straight what he felt were "fabrications" and "false impressions" propagated by the film and a "setup by China to control intelligence". Several leading politicians, including Tokyo's rightwing governor, Shintaro Ishihara, have come out in support of the film which basically denies that a massacre ever happened and honours several post-war criminals as martyrs. Now that the film is out, tensions are running high (watch that fiery debate in the second clip on the right). more ›

Here, Shanghai, were your favourite stories for the month of January: more ›

Every now and again, time and space just seem to line up in an incredible display of fate/coincidence (delete as appropriate). For months now, we have been trying to get to grips with the strange brand of Uncle Tom-ism on display in the Shanghai ex-pativerse. It has so many unique facets that it appears to defy summary or clear explanation. Then along came Matthew Polly who wrote American Shaolin, a book that sets it all out with the purpose and prose of a Plato’s Republic. Albeit unintentionally. more ›

Next time, Steve, stay for some Grandma's Mashed Potatoes. Trust us. more ›

Have you got an opinion? Starting this week, we will publish an opinion piece from readers on selected weekends, so if you feel like you've got something to get off your chest, email it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com and if we like it, we will publish it under this column. This week, a reader takes on That's Shanghai's Erik Peterson's review of Beijing punk band Snapline's new CD. All views expressed by writers under this column are their own and do not indicate any official position taken by Shanghaiist. more ›

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  Shanghai wants 50 top minds every year
  
  
  “Local authorities are offering lucrative packages to lure leading academics to the city under a new scheme to help boost its competitiveness.”
  
  


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  Shanghai to launch int’l channel targeting foreigners
  
  
  “The ICS programs, covering news, information, fashion, entertainment, foreign TV shows and movies, will be aired in English and Japanese, with Chinese captions, for 19 hours a day.”
  
  


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  Shanghai GM to launch Buick LaCrosse hybrid prior to Olympic Games
  
  
  “The move will make Shanghai GM the third joint venture automaker to deliver a hybrid vehicle in China following Toyota and Honda. Toyota Motor Corp is currently the only carmaker that builds a hybrid car in China.”


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  China Eastern to resume Shanghai-Saipan flights
  
  
  “China Eastern will resume its twice weekly Shanghai-Saipan flights starting Jan. 11, 2006, close to five months after the charter flights were suspended because of the decline of tourists coming in from China.”
  
  


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  China to survey dialects to better protect them | World | Reuters
  
  
  “A focus will be the Shanghai dialect … ‘As more and more young people in Shanghai use the dialect to communicate online, and as its vocabulary expands, it will be standardised and promoted as a distinct local language.’”
  
  


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  China’s New Bestseller: The Bible
  “Amity has churned out 41 million Bibles for Chinese believers at its plant outside … Nanjing, including more than 3 million copies last year. (About nine million copies have been exported to Africa, other parts of Asia and Central Europe.)”
• 5 nabbed in whisky sting
  “Police have arrested five people alleged to have duped a Swedish man into paying nearly 5,000 yuan ($680) for coffee and whisky during a recent business trip to the city.”
• Cyclists to race to top of city’s tallest tower on December 31
  “One contestant, Zhang Jincheng, the Guinness record keeper, is a 23-year-old from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. His two challengers are 28-year-old Andorran Xavi Casas and 34-year-old Colombian Javier Zapata.”


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  City tightens protection for historic buildings
  
  
  “The city government issued new rules last week banning road expansion on most of the 144 downtown roads lined with historic houses. The rules also ban tall buildings from being built in conservation areas.”
  
  


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  blognation China
  
  
  China tech blog worth checking out.
  
  


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  China Web2.0 Review
  
  
  Another China tech blog.


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  China: Pollution map of China released
  
  
  “Just over a year since their first mashup was released, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, headed by journalist-environmentalist Ma Jun, has just released its Air Pollution Map, complete with its own BBS and space for feedback forum.”
  
  


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  Todd Crowned China’s Sole Survivor
  “The 22-year-old flight attendant and world-class schemer outwitted, outplayed and outlasted his competitors for 39 days to be crowned the $1 million winner of the reality show’s 15th edition and the youngest winner in the series’ history.” 15!
• Three Beijing buildings on Time magazine’s best list
  “Three architectures in Beijing are on the list of 10 best architectural marvels (new and upcoming) selected by the Time magazine to be published on the Dec. 24.” None from Shanghai.

We don't feel right doing many concert reviews, mainly because of our relationships with the bands, and the realization after years of live shows that the quality depends as much on the venue, backline, PA, sound guy, etc...as it does the band. Plus we don't like to judge people who are capable of doing things we can't (clarification: we don't like judging people we think are cool, we have no problem judging all you uncool... more ›

So in the meanwhile, it's become kind of fashionable to blame Beijing for the mess in "Myanmar". Sure, Russia and India have gotten some of the blame for failing to rein in Burma's ruthless junta. ASEAN has also been put to shame for its impotence in handling Burma, and even Singapore's conservative Straits Times (subscription required) has begun to wonder aloud if it's not the right time to suspend Burma's membership in ASEAN, admitting that the "1997 Asean decision to admit Myanmar under the current military leadership without any conditionality was a mistake". more ›

The Shanghai Daily reports that cabbies are going to get plastic bags in their cars so that they don't have to spit outside. more ›

There's a definitely a buzz for fans of Chinese cinema with the release of Jia Zhangke's new film Still Life 《三峡好人》. In Shanghai and probably the rest of China, the film's theatrical release comes on December 14, the same day that Zhang Yimou's new film Curse of the Golden Flower. And while from the standpoint of the box office returns, it seems pretty clear who the winner will be, Jia doesn't at all seem flustered by the lackluster box office performance that his film has seen in the limited screenings that have happened over the last few weeks. more ›

Shanghaiist asked its contributors (and a few "music people" in town) to list their five favorite albums released (or yet-to-be released) somewhere in the world in 2006. Got a list of your own? Submit your favorite 2006 music as a comment to this post. Enjoy! more ›

GigShanghai: The scoop on the city's live music scene more ›

When the US State Department’s purchase of 16,000 desktop PCs from Chinese manufacturer Lenovo ran into a chorus of naysayers in the Congress, Shanghaiist chimed in. more ›

Tipped by Fons at China Herald, we found this interview with the founder of what Fons calls "China's Gawker." Edwyn Chan runs BlogKu Media, a network of five blogs in China. They are: DianZiRen (gadgets and electronics), Shuanga ("funny stuff"), Starpapa (celebrity gossip), Jiaexp (gaming) and Movblog (film). Another blog, Postshow -- which Chan says is "Boing Boing-like" -- is "affiliated" with BlogKu. 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 ›

We're sure her London-based publisher is happy to hear this. Zhou Wei Hui, author of banned-by-Beijing Shanghai Baby, admits that she self-censored her latest book Marrying Buddha (Shanghaiist review) because the Chinese government let her back in the country. more ›

Shanghaiist once recalls accompanying a friend to the hospital and asking the doctor, just out of curiosity, how one gets Prozac or other antidepressants in China. Despite our strivings, it's hard sometimes to remain optimistic about China's future, especially when you read articles like this one from MacLean's about all the problems that China's economy faces. Many people are particularly interested in China's oft-troubled banking industry, especially because later this month China Construction Bank will IPO in Hong Kong. more ›

Shanghaiist tried really really hard to bite our tongue after reading an AFP story first thing this morning -- headline "US lawmaker tells China to learn from CNOOC row" -- that contained astonishing quotes such as this one from the fast expanding Chuck Schumer: more ›

If you're like Shanghaiist, you like going to the movies. And if you're like Shanghaiist, you rarely go to the movies in Shanghai -- because, well, most of the movies that show here are crap. (And because you can buy 10 DVDs on the street for the price of one ticket to the theater.) Thank God then for the Shanghai International Film Festival, which concludes this weekend. Finally, we get some indie and art house fare on the big screen. Right? Right? more ›