Is China Africa's new colonial master? This Sunday, sit back and enjoy this 28 minute-long film by Brent Huffman and Zhou Xiaoli who travelled to Senegal in West Africa to find out. Read interviews with the filmmakers here and here. For previous Shanghaiist Sunday Shows, click here. more ›

Stephen MacDonnell of Al-Jazeera offers this excellent bird's eye view of the rise of evangelical Christianity in modern day China. In this episode of 101 East, he visits the government-approved Chongyi Church in Hangzhou, supposedly the world's largest Chinese megachurch, where evangelist Luis Palau preached at a gospel rally last year. He also speaks to Zheng Datong, pastor of a house church in Wenzhou, as well as Samuel Lamb, the 86-year-old pastor of the 4,000-strong Rongguili Church, an unregistered church that has grown too influential for local police to raid. He also attempts to visit the open-air service of Beijing's Shouwang Church, but the service doesn't take place as believers are taken away by police as soon as they arrive. more ›

The documentary below was CIA-produced and, until now, intended only for internal CIA audiences as a training measure. It details the capture, imprisonment, and eventual release of two CIA operatives shot down while on a secret mission to China in the 1950s. more ›

This Sunday, enjoy the following documentary by SBS Dateline (Australia) about the Chinese real estate market. more ›

An eminently relaxing look at Shanghai, filmed recently and set to music by Steven Delcourt. more ›

Remember that interesting Yiddish report, "What do Chinese people think of Jews"? Apparently it's part of web series called "A New York Jew in China" by the Jewish newspaper Forverts. Here's all six clips in the series so far, and part 4's "Jewish Shanghai Lost and Found" (after the jump) is a must-watch for those of you that don't have the time. Kick back and enjoy the show: more ›

If you were a fan of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shui-Bo Wang's Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square, you will also love his feature documentary, , which tells the story of some of the 21 American soldiers who chose to stay in China after the signing of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement. The film features some fascinating archival footage from China (watch out for the mini-Olympics held in the POW camps), American television clips and interviews with David Hawkins, the youngest of the group of defectors who is still alive today. Two other former POWs that feature heavily in this documentary are Clarence Adams, a black soldier from Memphis who chose to stay in China because of racial discrimination back home, and James Veneris, who became an avowed Communist, married, had children, and lived here till his death. more ›

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square (French: Le jour se lève sur la place Tienanmen) is a 1998 National Film Board of Canada short animated documentary directed by Shui-Bo Wang which received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Consisting of a colourful collage of personal and archival photos and original artwork, this fascinating documentary is one man's autobiographical look back at the turbulent Cultural Revolution and the subsequent years. An exceptional piece of work that is well worth 29 minutes of your time this Sunday: more ›

This 22 minute wartime newsreel from 1942 documents the efforts of China to deal with Japanese aggression:
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On Wednesday we told you about how the recent comments of Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew made during his latest trip to the US have caused an uproar among Chinese netizens. Aside from his more controversial statements that Asia needs the United States to counterbalance a rising China and that the US needs to be "an important part" of any new East Asian architecture, Lee also gave a wide-ranging interview to the Charlie Rose Show of the PBS network. China featured heavily in the 60 minute interview which kicked off with Lee's proclamation that the United States may have half a century left as the world's dominant power. In the new world order, said Lee, the US would have to make space for China and India at the top table of the world. For the next hour or so, sit back with us and gaze into Lee Kuan Yew's crystal ball as he looks back into the past and divines the future. As always, if you're in China and still not able to watch Youtube videos, now is the time to get your VPN. Meanwhile, a full transcript of this interview is available here. more ›

As we mentioned earlier this week, the Ted Koppel special "The People's Republic of Capitalism" is currently airing on the Discovery Channel in the U.S. For those of you who can't wait for the bittorrent, here are some clips from the series, most of which was filmed in Chongqing. more ›

A Date With Lu Yu《鲁豫有约》is one of the most influential talkshows in China which has been known to constantly push the envelope and to broach topics previously considered too hot to touch. One such episode is the one below which features two homosexual men from the Sichuan Province — who, long before the word "gay" had entered the Chinese lexicon — married each other, adopted a son and have been together for 21 years. more ›

It has been just over a month since the earthquake hit Sichuan, and while much of the media coverage has moved on to other disasters, we can still catch musical tributes while waiting for the subway. From the very beginning, we were impressed by how quickly state-owned media mobilized to air reel after reel of footage to inspire citizens across China to action and in many cases rally hope. Popular musicians all over Asia have banded together to sing for the all those who have been effected by the event, and faithful Chinese web users have uploaded countless such MVs to video sharing networks like Youtube and Tudou. Here is a sampling of what we have found. more ›

Leading political scientists Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore, Prof Barry Sautman of the University of Hong Kong, and Dr Chandra Muzaffar of the University of Science Malaysia provide much food for thought in this latest discussion on how China is dealing with the pressure of protests as the Olympics draws ever nearer on Al-Jazeera's 101 East.
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With a 600-year long history, Kunqu (崑曲) opera is one of the oldest extant forms of the Chinese opera and known as the "mother" of a hundred operas. Although dozens of professional Kunqu troupes used to operate across China, only a handful remain today in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chenzhou and Yongjia. Kunqu has been awarded the title of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO, which also recognises that the art form is in grave danger of extinction. Shanghai Opera Dreams, a production by Discovery Channel, follows several Kunqu experts in Shanghai on a mission to raise interest among the young, to uncover talent and to keep the art alive. more ›

Since Hu Jia (胡嘉) is currently being charged for inciting subversion behind closed doors, we figured there is no better time than now to show you Prisoners in Freedom City 《自由城的囚徒》, a documentary made by him and his wife, Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), while under a seven-month house arrest from August 2006 to March 2007. As ironic as it may sound, Freedom City is the name of the compound that houses the couple's apartment. This is not your typical arthouse documentary because it was made by Hu and Zeng with their little digital video camera, but what it lacks for in polish it makes up for with its power to send chills down your spine. more ›

From National Geographic:

Cars are racing into China supercharging its economy, and delivering dreams of a better life. But Chinas cars are clogging its highways and spewing out clouds of pollution. The rest of the world better watch out, because some Chinese automakers have plans to flood the world markets with cheaper Chinese cars be they made by GM or Chinas own Geely Automotive. We go inside the Geely plant in Ningbo, and follow a worker after hours in the canteen with his girlfriend, and then in the dorm he shares with seven other men. We see chairman and founder Li Shufu at his university in Beijing, welcoming the freshmen who one day will work at Geely, and help take it onto the worlds stage. We tag along with David and Vivian Ren as they go shopping for a car in Beijing, and then spend a 12-hour day picking it up, getting the licence plate, and paying for it with cash. The automobile industry and private car ownership are pivotal to Chinas economic recovery. They promise freedom to travel and a better life. But they are contributing to Chinas pollution. This worries environmentalist Sherry Liao who also believes that China is adopting too many western values. Car marketing expert Michael Dunne makes sense of it all. Call it a driving dream or a nightmare. This is China's revolution on wheels.

Our second show for the day is the critically acclaimed documentary Seoul Train (featured on PBS) which offers a look at the estimated 250,000 North Korean refugees living underground in China today, who have braved untold dangers to escape a food and humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of 3 million back home. The camera follows several groups of North Korean refugees, some have chosen to forcibly make their way past the gates of the Japanese embassy in Beijing, others have chosen to attempt to send in a formal application to be recognised as refugees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and yet others have chosen to make their way to Mongolia, in the hopes of eventually getting to South Korea, their promised land. If they are arrested, the Chinese government (which sees them as illegal economic migrants and not refugees) will certainly repatriate them to North Korea where they will face punishment and execution. It also offers a fascinating look at what's been called the Underground Railroad, a covert network of multinational cells of relief workers, activists and volunteers including a South Korean pastor, Chun Ki-won, who's been dubbed the Asian Schindler. This show is amazing in the way it acquaints the viewer with the complexity of the issue, taking into account a wide range of divergent views, and even taking on the UNHCR for its supposed compliance with the Chinese government. Till today, the UNHCR has not saved a single North Korean refugee. more ›

This week on Shanghaiist Sunday Show, we turn on our eye to the refugee issue and bring you not just one but two documentaries. The first documentary is a show on Al Jazeera's 101 East which features Tibetan refugees trying to get out of China and the second one is a show on North Korean refugees trying to come into China. more ›

It's Sunday! Kick back with Shanghaiist with this light-hearted Survivor-type documentary on three British businessmen looking for their big break in China: cushion manufacturer Tony Caldeira, ex-colonel Peter Williams who's looking to sell his energy-saving device to the Chinese, and controversial kitchen retailer Vance Miller who has built a huge business by undercutting everyone else and selling cheap Chinese kitchens in the UK. These three characters will remind you of people you have met in China. And watch out for Vance Miller. He is our hero. more ›