Are you ready to watch the nation go star crazy? Because, after two seasons out of the limelight, a new version of the hit China idol show "Super Girls" is coming! This time around, Hunan Satellite Television is calling its karaoke contest "Happy Girls" (快乐女声). more ›

Li Yuchun (李宇春) — the "androgynous wonder from Sichuan" who was the first winner of Super Voice Girls (an American Idol-style talent show) — recently gave a concert in Nanjing, and she performed in *gasp* a skirt! Now if you have no clue what an earth-shattering revolution Super Voice Girls represented (for the very first time, viewers were allowed to vote for their favourite singer via SMS, causing some powers-that-be to quake with fear) and... more ›

In this day and age, you can define "torture" however you want to, and for a long time, we considered the practice of inputting Chinese characters on a Mac to fulfill our definition. OS X has a built-in simplified Chinese input that does the job, but doesn't really hold a candle to any of the Windows XP input methods—and when Sogou came out with their input method, and Google copied it, we considered that battle to be over. more ›

The lyrics were written by a Shanghai man named Gong Kaijie (龚凯杰), who's been playing the stock market for ten years and knows of what he writes. And although he was the one that provided the initial spark of creativity that made this happen, it is the singer of the song, 24 year-old Shanghai native Wang Bei (王蓓) that lent her voice to the words. Wang once wanted to be a star, but was weeded out of the pop-star manufacturing assembly line TV shows such as Super Voice Girls (超级女声). It looks like she might still have her chance. more ›

While the rest of the world is wondering how George W. Bush will further fuck up Iraq and where Becks and Posh are going to settle in L.A., we came across a report about a concert event in Las Vegas: more ›

Photo by Peijin Chen taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

Photo by the shanghaieye taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

The video clip about Tong's case was "useful in helping us protect state secrets,'' the Sichuan Population and Family Planning Commission said in a July 31 statement on its Web site. more ›

Photo by spiky247 taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

The show, broadcast live on Dragon TV until August, is like a male beauty contest that began on May 21. We read the rules of the competition, and it seems they aim to select charming men with both ability and moral integrity, to make them the new image of the young generation. We suppose it helps if the guy is hot, too, although that clearly was not the case for Super Voice Girls. more ›

We don't deny being moral reprobates, but even we have lines that should not be crossed. Flipping on the TV to the Shanxi Satellite TV station (山西卫视) we saw what seemed to be a close-up shot of a belly dancer's sequined arse shaking. Imagine our shock when the camera cut to a shot of the whole dancer's body -- and we discovered the dancer was indeed a belly dancer that was about, oh, seven years old. She was wearing Cleopatra beads and excessive, near hazardous amounts of mascara. Ugh. Forgive us father, for we have sinned. By turning on the television. Turns out that this girl and other the other competitors are part of a show called Super Juveniles (超级少年), which, while an accurate translation, sure doesn't have the ring of Super Voice Girls. We couldn't find that much information in the Chinese media (at least compared to Super Voice Girls) but it seemed that whatwe were watching might have been a rerun: Some eight-year-old girl seems to have won the championship on April 30 after facing stiff competition from a breakdancing and R&B crooning Xinjiang boy. more ›

Photo by Ya Ya taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos "shanghaiist". Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

Stirred by the unprecedented success of Super Voice Girls for Hunan TV, Zhejiang TV and Yahoo are jumping on the bandwagon. Yahoo -- or should we say, Yahoo! -- is duking it out with Baidu and Google, and their latest ploy is this contest, which involves three famous directors: Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige and Zhang Jizhong. The contest is called Sou Xing ("searching for stars"), and it's subtitled 让你红的发紫, which literally means that you'll be so red (i.e. popular) that you'll turn purple. Sounds better in Chinese. Anyhow, there's internet voting, all kinds of lists, PK speculations, and, like any good Chinese site, has countless pictures of soulless good-looking-in-that-cookie-cutter-pop-star-way people. The first part was conducted online during March, and the final parts will be shown on Zhejiang TV later this month, when the final 12 contestants for each director will square off against each other. The final prize is an acting contract and the chance to use those "acting" skills for the directors when they make their commercials for Yahoo!. more ›

Photo by Shanghai Sky taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos "shanghaiist". Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

OK, OK, let us do some back tracking first, since this won't be the first Apprentice clone to air in China. , but it broke down over contract negotiations. more ›

) competition, will soon appear on collector's stamps throughout China. For its incorporation of SMS voting into its decision-making process, cultural critic Zhu Dake declared Super Voice Girls "blazed a trail for cultural democracy" in China. China National Philatelic Corp. is eager to cash in on that trailblazing, as they are set to issue a series of eight stamps (RMB 36) and a set of eight commemorative envelopes (RMB 38) designed by Guo Chenghui. more ›

Super Voice Girls Li Yuchun and Zhang Liangying are in Taiwan, but on the down-low, because according to the laws stipulated by Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, mainland Chinese cannot officially perform in Taiwan, and thus cannot hold press conferences, meet with fans, or have their names printed on the performance bill. What exactly is this performance they are holding in Taiwan, you ask? Well, from what we gather it's a charity concert, but for who or what we're not entirely sure: the Chinese title is "情聲藝動相約東南". Maybe you fans of charity concerts or Chinese pop can fill us in. It seems from the articles Shanghaiist has read that this concert is going to be a who's who of the Mandopop world. more ›

From the China Daily: more ›

Popular Chinese internet search engine Baidu.com recently announced the 10 most popular search queries for 2005, reports the Star Daily (via the Shanghai Daily China news blog). Here they are, in order of popularity (we think): more ›

The New York Times has posted a four-minute video entitled "What's on China's TV Tonight?" It's narrated by David Barboza, an NYT writer based in China, and focuses on Hunan province, which, thanks to mega-hit Super Voice Girls, is the epicenter of China's television boom. The video shows clips of SVG -- including eventual champion Li Yuchun's awful rendition of Bryan Adams' awful "Everything I Do" -- but it also mentions a couple new shows, like the Gong Show-esque Who's the Hero?, where one guy tried to undress women and serve tea to them using a forklift and another bloody-mouthed guy set some kind of record for opening bottles with his teeth, and another show that tries to find China's next young ping pong star. more ›

Following the sensational success of Super Voice Girls (Chaoji Nu Sheng or 超级女声), Hunan Province Satellite Television Station planned to organize another American Idol-style TV program called -- surprise, surprise -- Super Voice Boys (Chaoji Nan Sheng or 超级男声), the TV station announced the news to media cheerfully in early September. However, Xinhua reports (in Chinese) the plan was called off by The Central Propaganda Department and The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. (Whew.) The official line is Super Voice Girls had a lot of "negative" inside stories involved with both the judges and the candidates when it started to become popular. Rumors of blackmail swirled while contestants were labeled concubines and, of course, lesbians (not that there's anything wrong with that). more ›

• By now you're thinking Shanghaiist's obsessions with Super Voice Girls is a little embarrassing for someone our age, and we'd tend to agree with you. But indulge us once more, this time we have proof these girls are real stars -- because they now have legal troubles to the tune of half million yuan for the October 9 concert in Beijing. Some music composers' association believes that these girls can't just offer up other peoples' songs without coughing up some royalties.
• Labor rights is a big issue in China. Our hearts used to go out to all those poor Latin dance teachers making a pittance, with their only solace in life coming from that ability gyrate their hips in close contact with often attractive members of the opposite sex in what is arguably the most aestheticized form of foreplay on earth. But things are looking up now that the Shanghai city government has released "guidelines" for their wages (in Chinese), along with those for Chinese chess, breakdance teachers, and a couple other professions. The highest they should get? About 110 RMB per hour. aAd the lowest? 30 RMB per hour. And another thing: the article calls the Latin dance teachers "aerobic Latin dance teachers". We're guessing anaerobic Latin dance teachers get paid more, and that whatever they do is truly, as they say, better than sex.
• Pamela Anderson is back. Her topless anti-fur ads placed at bus stops that raised a ruckus last year are now going to be sold on phone cards. Read what she has to say about the campaign, and realize just how stupid the voice of conscience can sound.

Shanghaiist staff (all six officials ones plus numerous groupies) are unabashed devotees of the Super Voice Girls, so imagine our pleasure when we found out that Li Yuchun, the androgynous wonder from Sichuan and final winner of the contest that sent tingles and shivers down the spine of people throughout China, became a cover girl. Sort of -- she made the cover of a Special Issue of TIME magazine called "Asia's Heroes". more ›

Shanghaiist first heard of the Korean TV drama Dae Jang Geum (大长今) or Jewel in the Palace from mom, who used to recapitulate every episode on the phone, which, as anyone who really loves watching TV, knows is impossible. Our interest was further piqued when Shanghaiist's Chinese literature professor remarked that he too was glued to the television every night. So, is the target demographic 60-something Asian eggheads? Evidently, Hunan TV doesn't think so, because the folks down in Changsha wouldn't want to follow up their smashing success with Super Voice Girls with a dud. more ›

• First Hong Kong. Next Shanghai Disneyland? Not so fast. "In order for us to even consider a park there, we need to be sure we have access to television," Disney president and future CEO Robert Iger said in the IHT. He wants a Chinese Disney Channel on the Mainland. That is not going to be easy. (Via China Herald)
• Anyone who has taught in China knows that Chinese students cheat ... a lot. Many don't try to hide it, and don't think they are doing anything wrong (or they just don't care). Well, now they could go to jail. And if that doesn't work, there is always the "anti-corruption" curriculum.
• In a move that would never happen in the US, the makers of the amazingly popular Super Voice Girls TV program are saying the show will not be aired next year. Have no fear, Super Voice Boys is on its way. (Seriously.)

We seemingly love Super Voice Girls here at Shanghaiist, and so does Shanghai. Tickets for the October 6 SVG show at Shanghai Stadium are selling at a record pace, according to the Shanghai Youth Daily via the AP. Tickets range from 50 to 580 RMB, and the price is right for thousands of local Yu Mi, Fen Bi and Liang Fen (it all makes sense if you read this story). All 6,000 floor seats were snatched up on Tuesday, the first day of sales, as were half of the 39,000 stadium seats. That's quite a bit better than Andy Lau and Jay Chou sold during their most recent trips to Shanghai. Thus, the Youth Daily proclaimed, "The draw of the Super Girls leaves the heavenly kings of pop in their dust." Oh, snap! more ›

Now that the season has ended for that summer sensation, Super Voice Girls, it seems like every provincial station has a talent show of some kind. While they all follow the same basic formula, Star TV's Meiren Guan (美人关 or Beauty Checkpoint) is a little different. Ten ordinary young men compete for the affections of the studio audience, made up of 200 girls. When it began airing in 2002, it was the first program in China where the winner was chosen by popular vote -- although unlike Super Voice Girls, only members of the studio audience can cast ballots. more ›

If we're lucky! The Chinese TV sensation is launching a nationwide concert tour. The Saturday concert series kicks off Oct. 1 in Sichuan's Chengdu. The tour will hit 10 cities, focusing on cities that played host to regional qualifiers for the American Idol-esque show. Was Shanghai one of those cities? Shanghaiist has no clue. Perhaps a reader can help us out? Each concert is expected to cost around RMB 1 million. more ›

, produced and broadcast by the state-owned Hunan Province Satellite Television Station. The program's full name is Mengniu Yoghurt Super Voice Girls -- Mengniu being one of China's leading dairy product brands. more ›