In remarks made by Singapore's K Shanmugam on the conclusion of his back-to-back introductory visits as foreign minister to the United States and China, he noted that comments he made on the US-China relationship during his visit to Washington were warmly welcomed in Beijing. more ›

Chinese high rollers have transformed Macau and Singapore into two of the world's top gambling destinations. Now, Australia wants a slice of that market too. Peter Gotting of Australia Network News reports. more ›

CNN's Fareed Zakaria asks Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong a few questions about China in a recent interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Video and transcript after the jump... more ›

Odd story of the day: A Singaporean man who has been overstaying in Beijing for six years escaped from a Chinese jail term by tampering with his passport so as to get repatriated. The story via the Straits Times: more ›

Foreign universities may all be flocking to China but Chinese universities are also taking the first tentative steps overseas. Shanghai Jiaotong University is setting up a new research centre with the National University of Singapore to work on Energy and Environmental Sustainability Solutions for Megacities. more ›

Chinese-language edition of a campaign by Action for Aids, Singapore for World Aids Day 2011. more ›

The shiny shitter is currently on display at the 11th World Toilet Summit and Expo that began yesterday in the Hainan provincial capital of Haikou. more ›

Another day, another group of angry Chinese travellers causing a commotion somewhere in the world. This time, a group of tourists from Shanghai, Sichuan and Shenzhen staged a protest at Singapore's Changi Airport after a lengthy delay of their Hong Kong Airlines flight. more ›

The Chinese national team's elation from its 4-0 thrashing of Singapore yesterday was quickly dampened by news that Iraq had edged out Jordan in Group A, dashing China's hopes of qualifying for the 2014 Brazilian World Cup. more ›

Born in 1898 during the Qing Dynasty to a poor family in Shantou, Guangdong Province, Teresa Hsu Chih (許哲) has spent most of her life helping the poor, the destitute and the elderly. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Hsu gave up her job to serve as a volunteer to help the injured. The experience led her to decide to become a nurse at the age of 47 when the war ended. As she was overaged, she wrote a special request to the Nursing Council in London to accept her as a student. Touched by her sincerity, the council accepted her application and she went on to serve as a nurse in England and Paraguay before returning to join her family in Penang, Malaysia. more ›

An estimated 5,500 China-based Singaporeans and their friends converged Saturday at Pudong's Century Park for Singapore Day 2011 organised by the Overseas Singaporean Unit. Home to about half of the 20,000 Singaporean expatriates in China, Shanghai is the fourth city to host a Singapore Day after London, New York and Melbourne. more ›

Calling all Singaporeans across China! Make plans to come down to Shanghai in April because a special event has been planned for you by the Overseas Singapore Unit. Scheduled to take place on April 16 at Pudong's Century Park, the 4th annual Singapore Day will be held in Shanghai for the first time. more ›

Following in the footsteps of Chinese actress Gong Li, kung fu superstar Jet Li (李连杰) has also confirmed that he has now taken on Singaporean citizenship. more ›

Theme song of the Singapore pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, featuring Singaporean pop-stars A-do (阿杜), Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), Stephanie Sun (孫燕姿) and JJ Lin (林俊傑)
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Two months ago, in Singapore, the naked body of a 24 year old Chinese woman, Li Hongyan, was found floating in the pool of a bungalow owned by a real estate tycoon located in the posh Sentosa Cove district. The woman had been working in Singapore at an Indian restaurant, but was moonlighting as a karaoke hostess. more ›

When the Singapore pavilion powers-that-be revealed their weird mascot last year, we pretty much crowned it the winner of the Worst Expo Rep Pageant 2010. The back story created for little Durian Star by the Singapore Tourism Board also won the Most Awful Narrative prize: more ›

Six months after his interview with Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, Charlie Rose has sat down with his son, Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister of Singapore, who was in the United States last week for the nuclear security summit. In the hour-long interview, Lee fielded a wide range of questions on everything from Obama's leadership to China, Iran and India. Here's the China-specific portion of the interview which we found particularly interesting: more ›

When the Expo people first revealed Haibao, we were less than pleased. Then the Australian mascot came along and we thought to ourselves, well at least we're not that obvious. Then the Taiwanese mascot made its appearance and we were thankful that at least Shanghai wasn't being represented by something that looked like crap. Literally. But this new Singaporean mascot? It actually makes us happy that Haibao's ours. more ›

While his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been busy meeting up with former US President George Bush, Singapore's ever so feisty and sprightly 86 year old Minister Mentor¹ Lee Kuan Yew has gone halfway around the globe to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington ahead of his debut Asian tour that will include China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Lee's tour also saw him meeting two key Cabinet members of the Obama administration - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. more ›

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Chinese sports brand up-and-comer Li Ning has opened its first store outside of the country, though it didn't go far. The newest themed flagship shop will be in Singapore's ION Orchard Mall. The theme: badminton paradise, which will focus on the sport's equipment and maintenance. According to Li Ning CFO Nicholas Chong, "Badminton is a popular, prevalent and influential sport in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Expansion into this market not only shows our determination to become the sports brand synonymous with badminton, it also lays a solid foundation for the group's expansion into overseas markets." Considering how badminton players tend to appear on billboards here with the same badassedness as basketball and football players in the U.S., we guess that's not a bad strategy to hedge on after all. Source: Brand Republic more ›

First the Singaporeans seduced China's prettiest lady, Gong Li, and now it looks like the city-state might have its claws on China's current kung fu king! According to the AFP, Jet Li has taken up Singaporean citizenship and brought a property worth nearly 20 million Singapore dollars. Of course, nobody's confirming it right now... are our hearts really going to be broken again? WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT SINGAPORE ANYWAY? more ›

• Kashgar's Old Town Bulldozed; Is Uyghur Culture in Danger? [FarWestChina - gfw] "Within the narrow alleyways of this Old Town lie thousands of years of Kashgar’s history. Aged wooden doors and cobblestone paths have witnessed the passage of innumerable donkey carts, small Uyghur children and, in recent times, many foreign tourists. On the outside, these mud-brick walls seem at peace with their place in history but just beyond the padlocked door a crippling truth emerges. Squinting through the cracks in the doorway it is possible to see that these walls no longer house Uyghur inhabitants. Instead, they hide the heartbreaking destruction of Kashgar’s Old City. Over two-thirds of the city has already been leveled. History has been replaced by rubble; donkey carts by bulldozers."
• Chinese Singing Show To Go On, With a New Name and Conditions [WSJ] "While hugely popular, the shows also triggered hot debates. Some celebrated them for representing the victory of grassroots culture over official or elite culture, while others believed the show just encouraged young people to seek out overnight fame. Along with popularity came increased government scrutiny. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) released a series of specific measures to regulate entertainment programs (particularly talent shows) in 2007 and a planned 2008 season of Super Girls was cancelled. A spokesman for Hunan Satellite Television told the media late last month that a revival of the televised singing competition had been approved by the Sarft, though not without several conditions attached."
• Singapore promotes Mandarin [Danwei] "According to a survey conducted on incoming primary students by the Singapore Department of Education, the number of Chinese-language households in Singapore has been declining since the 1990s. Today, only 40% of households use Chinese as a primary language, while English-language households have climbed from 26% in 1990 to 60% today. To reverse this trend, the Singapore Promote Mandarin Council launched The Chinese Challenge on March 30, fun quizzes that let Singapore citizens and permanent residents personally experience the breadth and depth of Chinese culture, deepen their understanding of Mandarin, and improve their grasp on the language."

Not to be outdone by the Danes who've decided to send away their Little Mermaid on a 6 month excursion to Shanghai next year, Singapore is now thinking of sending its Merlion to the 2010 World Expo too. more ›

Actress Gong Li (巩俐) appeared recently as glamorous as ever in Beijing for a L'Oreal event in what was likely her first public appearance in China since she took on Singaporean citizenship. At a press conference she revealed that she's been receiving lots of offers from Hollywood lately, and when asked if she had any plans to return to Chinese cinema, she said, "I've always had, I've always had." But when the question moved on to her citizenship, Gong Li promptly turned around, spoke to her minders and made a quick exit. more ›

Big week in food safety and health-related news. First the melamine eggs and the tainted soy sauce and wasabi, then the cholera outbreak in Hainan, and now this — 10 men have died in Singapore from complications resulting from the consumption of illegal China-made sex enhancement pills. The Straits Times reports:

ILLEGAL sex enhancement pills have killed six more men here in the past five months, bringing the drug's death toll to 10 this year. more ›

Looks like our earlier warning to not eat or drink anything with dairy content for the time being bears repeating. Singapore has now found traces of melamine in White Rabbit candies, wildly popular throughout Asia. The Straits Times reports:

Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said samples of White Rabbit-brand Creamy Candy imported from China were contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. more ›

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A momentous day for both Chinese and Singaporean table tennis. China won three matches to zero in the finals of the first ever womens table tennis team event. Consisting of the best of five matches, China won the first three matches conceding only two games to Singapore. more ›

Benjamin Boukpeti: Picked up the first medal for Togo bronze in the men’s slalom kayak event but the French-born sportsman has only been to Togo once as a child to visit his paternal grandmother! According to Reuters, Boukpeti "only decided to compete for Togo when it became clear he was too old to make it into the far more competitive French team". more ›