In this week's totally insane China news, a 95-year-old woman thought dead climbed out of her own coffin after lying in it for six days! First thing she does? Raids the fridge. more ›

For the first time in 70 years (to the month!), the Economist has launched a new section of their magazine. The last time this happened was when they started up the US section following the events at Pearl Harbor. Now we say something something about how it's representative of a new global shift yadda yadda. more ›

Take a look at the Economist's illustration of the world's standing military personnel by country. China boasts the largest numbers at over 2.25 million. Surprisingly (maybe?) China ties with the US on air force size and its navy isn't far behind (worth noting that China's air force alone dwarfs the size of Britain's entire military). But as far as who is most "heavily militarized", measured by personnel per 1,000 population, the USA is three times more militarized than China, and North Korea blows everybody else out of the water. And does that big grey "other" section of the Russian military make anybody else nervous? more ›

We've known for a while that Chinese students were "flooding" American colleges and that American students were in turn "flooding" Wudaokou, but nothing helps put it into perspective like a chart from The Economist! more ›

The Economist Intelligent Unit's Access China services has some pretty cool visualizations of where real future growth of China's economy lies. Hint: It's not here in Shanghai. more ›

The Economist has posted an interview with "Mao's translator," Sidney Rittenberg (李敦白). Arriving in China in 1944, Rittenberg befriended Mao, Zhou Enlai and other top Communists. During his long involvement with the Chinese Communist Party, Rittenberg was imprisoned twice. The first time in 1949, after being falsely fingered as a "spy" by Joseph Stalin, he spent six years in solitary confinement and the second time in 1968, for ten years when labelled a "May 16^th element" (五一六分子). more ›

Around this time of year, the topic of social unrest in China is never far from the fore. The recent spate of strikes at the Honda plant in Foshan and slew of suicides at Foxconn's Shenzhen factory has provided recent evidence that not only disenfranchised sections of society are willing to show their defiant colours, but also the greater need for the government to address China's wealth distribution. more ›

Oh thank goodness! We nearly had a heart attack this morning when we read this chilling article (maybe just chilling to all of us who enjoy comparably cheap imported French cheeses) in the Economist noting that two big shareholders were reportedly pushing Carrefour to sell off its China and Brazil businesses. At least according to the company, it's not true. more ›

... not Santa Claus! We wonder if the Chairman would be rolling in his grave Mao-soleum if he knew he was on the cover of the latest issue of The Economist, looking all festive with a santa hat. Well, according to them, Mao is a role model of sorts for top Chinese executives even today. The four key ingredients of the Chairman's art of management are: a powerful, mendacious slogan; ruthless media manipulation; sacrifice of friends and colleagues; and activity substituting for achievement. Here's what The Economist says CEO's can learn from Mao's PR tactics:

Chief executives are not in a position to crush the media as Mao did. Nevertheless, his handling of them offers some lessons. He talked only to sycophantic journalists and his appeal in the West came mainly from hagiographies written by reporters whose careers were built on the access they had to him. more ›

Will the Dalai Lama reincarnate before he dies? Calgary Herald: Two Dalai Lamas? Reuters: China condemns Dalai Lama for ideas on succession The Times: Dalai Lama offers his flock a vote on whether he should be reincarnated The Economist: Communists can live with reincarnation. A referendum is a different matter AP: China Reports Riot in Southwestern Tibet Sino-US relations NYT: China Explains Decision to Block U.S. Ships Bloomberg: China Denies Saying Incident Was `Misunderstanding'... more ›

The Peking Duck: Is the rush to study Chinese a time-wasting fad? more ›

Shanghaiist loves lists. We've embraced the love of lists ever since we picked up Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity. So when browsing the morning news yesterday, our honed powers of list detection and surveillance led us to discover that Shanghai has been included in yet another list. Not just any pokey little list might we add, but The Economist magazine's 2007 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (WCOL) for expatriate workers. more ›

It's not just Shanghai residents who are mightily miffed about upping and leaving their homes for what they believe is poor compensation. more ›

The Guardian today reports on another riot in rural China: more ›

Photo by CAI Yan 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 ›

for a bottle of water every once in a while? You may have wondered how such a dingy shack could marr the pristine face of Huangpi Lu, a street that hosts towering office highrises and Vincent Lo's Shanghai pride-and-joy. Or maybe the populist inside of you secretly giggled with glee at the thought of these hardy individuals using the law to hold up the greedy Hong Kong developers with their wads of cash and gobs of guanxi. more ›