Just after midnight, bullet shots went through a BMW's window in a carjack attempt, eventually slaying two Chinese graduate students, Ying Wu and Ming Qu, near the University of Southern California (USC) campus. more ›

Dongguan, Chang'an Town, a notorious nightclub was the scene of a clash between Shenzhen special police and gangsters with knives. During the altercation, officers opened fire, accidentally striking a nearby cab driver in the process. Though the driver was taken to the hospital, he was pronounced dead the next morning. more ›

Now that the suspects have been rounded up and everything has settled down a bit, we can confirm that the shooting in Shanghai's Putuo district on Friday was a fatal clash between two gangs. All in all, four homemade (homemade?) guns were confiscated and 10 people were detained, of which two have now passed away from gunshot wounds. While police would give no more explanation than that the argument was over a dispute, Shanghai Daily speculated that it was a drug deal gone wrong. The last time we saw a shooting was way back in 2002, and there were two injuries. Source: Xinhua more ›

That's right - people actually got SHOT in Shanghai, despite the country's incredibly strict laws on gun control! Two men are said to have received gunshot wounds in the Huili Garden apartment complex off Changshou Road in the Putuo District. more ›

The honors of the first gold medal of these Olympics went to the Czech Republic, when Katerina Emmons won the women's 10-meter air rifle competition. China's hope in that event, Du Li, did not medal. more ›

If you are tired of spending your Saturday and Sunday mornings lying around with a hangover — what better way to kick it then by running around outdoors and shooting people with paintballs while wearing a Darth Vader mask and army fatigues. more ›

Question: “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?” Or lately: "Name three people hating on the once mighty US dollar." On Tuesday, Cheng Siwei, the vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress suggested that China’s foreign exchange regulators ought to consider shifting the country’s massive USD $1.4 trillion reserve into “stronger” currencies. The greenback has been on a downward spiral since 2003. Little did Cheng know that his remarks would trigger a... more ›

The guys from Meiwenti Productions are back with the 6th instalment of their Shanghai Short Film Contest to be held in three years. So budding directors, start getting out your lights and cameras and start shooting. The deadline for submissions is November 25 and the awards ceremony will be on December 8 at a yet-to-be-disclosed location. And... since "6" is the devil's number, the organisers have decided that this will be a horror-only fest. Looks like some people haven't had enough of Halloween! more ›

When Shanghai resident and blogger Jakob Montrasio posted this photo on our Contribute Page, we wondered exactly when he visited the Forbidden City, because the blue skies in the photo weren't in Beijing last week when we were there. Then we realized the photo was taken in Zhejiang Province — a place called Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) — where a seemingly life-size replica of the Forbidden City can be found (with a small mountain... more ›

The hostage crisis at the Putuo KFC two nights ago was a shining triumph for the Shanghai police, who managed to kill the bad guy and save the migrant worker's little four-year-old girl. Now, you can relive the glory with this account of the proceedings (in Chinese). Although we would have preferred to see Samuel L. Jackson or Kevin Spacey handle something of this danger, there was some local talent on hand. One of the negotiators dressed up and pretended to be the store manager, but to no avail. A female special forces officer also dressed up as a KFC employee and brought food and drink, but evidently, someone didn't do the chicken right, because the hostage-taker got nervous. The special forces officer had a gun stuffed in her pants but decided that this wasn't the best moment to use it. more ›

Image of Yang Huiyan, now China's richest person, from China Daily. more ›

For most of the day yesterday, we here at Shanghaiist were wondering if we should post anything about the horrific mass shooting at Virginia Tech, a university in the United States. On the surface, the answer should have been an easy "no" — Blacksburg, Virginia, is nowhere near Shanghai. But news started to trickle in about the suspected killer: He was Asian, possibly Chinese. And then, yesterday morning, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed posted a story labeled "exclusive" that started out like this: more ›

CCTV just started shooting this 40 part series in Guangdong—with a total budget of $6.4 million. That figure sounds awfully minuscule, but what we do we know. The person they picked to play Bruce Lee is Hong Kong actor Kwok -Kwan Chan (陈国坤), who got his big break starring in Stephen Chow movies such as Shao-Lin Soccer. more ›

Which reminds us — we need to go to the gym. more ›

Last Saturday, Shanghaiist was invited to attend the unveiling of Shanghai's newest gallery space, m97. Once we negotiated the tricky shared building entrance, we made our way to the second floor and was immediately impressed by the physical space and airy nature of the gallery. The grand opening featured an exhibition of by emerging Beijing photographer and artist Jiang Zhi titled "Things Would Turn Simpler Once They Happened". Immediately we had diametrically opposing thoughts. "How were these photos taken?", and "I don't quite get it...". We wished that our interpretation of the photographic exhibition was as simple as the exhibition's title, but we assume this is the art part of the exhibition. Here's a little about Jiang Zhe (pictured below) and his exhibit from information posted by m97. more ›

A few weeks ago principal shooting wrapped on director Hu Xueyang's (胡雪杨) latest film, Shanghai 1976 (《上海1976》), a Cultural Revolution era romance involving two half-Chinese half-Caucasian sisters, daughters of a missionary. Here's the IMDB plot summary:

Shanghai 1976 is a moving story that tells the tale of a forbidden love and of the loss of innocence in Shanghai, China, in the turbulent year 1976. Four young people come of age and fall in love against the backdrop of political and historical events. Their heritage reflects Shanghai's cosmopolitan history. Two Eurasian girls, sisters, meet and fall in love with two Chinese men. As their lives become more entangled, they find themselves ostracized. While the Great Cultural Revolution unravels around them, these four begin to dream new dreams, to reach for freedom and to nurture hope for a brighter future.

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. more ›

For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day. more ›

"Xinjiang was know as 'Western Region' in history. It has been a component part of our unified and multi-nationality country for more than 2000 years. From 60 BC, when the Han dynasty instituted the Military Viceroy's Office in the Western Region, Xinjiang was under the direct jurisdiction of the government of the Western Han Dynasty." So we learned from, Xinjiang Information, a delightful little instruction-set from Xinjiang Learning Press. Well obviously, these guys haven't read it yet, or else they would not release such wrong-headed videos as the one issued November 7 via the al-Fajr Information Center. Evidently shooting from the same studios that brought the world such terrorist hits as the as-Sahab and Labik videos from Afghanistan, this group seeks to incite Jihad in Xinjiang Province, or "Eastern Turkestan" as it is called in the video. Although the scope of SCO has expanded since it was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, combating the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism was its original raison d'etre. It seems everyone from GM to jihad wants a piece of China. more ›

-Bostonist discussed two big state issues-- what sort of math constitutes a marriage and what kind of alcohol can be sold in most grocery stores. And the politically minded Curt Schilling went on "Jeopardy!". more ›

At least the glut of new classifieds websites in Shanghai makes for some entertaining reading. Via Imagethief, we learn of this unfortunately worded posting: more ›

Here are Miss Chen's qualifications for the 2006 Da Er Wen (达尔文) Award: more ›

Lonely (or just plain horny) city residents have taken to a new fad -- wearing bracelets which let people know that you are single (or at least still looking): more ›

Where do you stand in the 021 Bar/Shrock.cn controversy? Shanghaiist has been light on the scene for a while and wasn't there for the height of the drama, but by reviewing the thread linked above you can get the general idea: a run-down bar in the Yangpu district run by some "rock immigrants" from Xiamen, has the support of local favorites San Huang Ji, over-enthusiastically and haphazardly organizes concerts, sometimes announcing bands who later deny that they had been contracted to play. more ›

Canadian born photographer Greg Girard has been shooting in Asia for quite a while and in Shanghai for the last six years. Some of the fruits of his labors were on display at the opening of his Studio Rouge show Downtown on Sunday. Much of Girard's work focuses on homes. Many of the pictures at the show were exteriors of run-down, slated-for-destruction buildings. Often shot at dusk or at night, the very studiously composed shots show an incredible amount of detail, things you see all the time but perhaps never notice. more ›

• Shanghai's luxury hotels took a hit during the Chinese New Year period, and in order to recuperate some of their losses, cut their prices in late January by as much as 50-70 percent. For example, the Sheraton went down from 1600 yuan a night to 728 yuan a night, and the Portman's prices fell from 3000 yuan to just 800 yuan.
• Taobao, one of China's main online auction and shopping sites, is no longer permitting the sale of "original flavor underwear" (原味内衣), i.e. used or worn underwear. According to the reports most of the people selling these items were of the female persuasion, and the prices were generall 20-40 yuan, though some choice items topped the 100 yuan mark.
• Go here for some pictures of graffiti art in Beijing. Some of it ain't bad, artistically speaking, but is probably not good for the building of a harmonious society.

Outspoken (and slightly above average) Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones made history this week, becoming the first active American NBA player to sign an endorsement deal with a Chinese sports apparel brand. Li Ning, one of China's leading sports brands, signed Jones to a two-year deal, details of which were not disclosed. Jones has worn Li Ning's "Feijia" sneakers for most of this season. more ›

The Washington Post has an interesting story about the creative ways some Chinese internet users are fooling censors and managing to, vaguely at least, discuss the violent police crackdown in Dongzhou earlier this month. A forum post masked as a discussion about Lu Xun's 1926 essay "In Memory of Ms. Liu Hezhen" -- written in response to a Beijing massacre that year -- drew thousands of comments recently: more ›

Juan Vargas, filmmaker more ›