We never thought we would ever see The Slits appear on a poster promoting a Shanghai event, but that day has arrived thanks to 88 New Wave who have been quietly putting on offbeat punk parties at Cs Bar. We like their eclectic and open take on punk, enjoying everything from Gang of Four to Salt 'n Pepa. more ›

The Top 10 favorite sounds of Shanghai contest is over and the results have been announced. The reports (in Chinese) that we've seen thus far, which are more or less identical, do not have the list in its entirety. However, the reports all mention that the Reeb beer song is one of the top ten, especially since it's composer, Kong Jia died at age 26. The contest rules stipulate three ways of entering the contest -- you can either record sounds, write something, or call in and tell them what you're favorite sound is. So what else was there? The sound of seagulls at the Waibaidu Bridge, and this unique take on life in the city -- the sound of a 70 year-old "empty nest" life. With the kids working and busy with lives of their own, these old people spend their time feeding birds, listening to the radio, talking with each other. This is part of the author's statement: “城市的生活压力让年轻人忙于在外面打拼，难得回家看看老人，空巢老人越来越多，他们的心声有谁倾听？城市发展固然令人兴奋，但深层次的问题也应该引起关注。” ("The pressure of city life is such that young people are constantly busy and working and thus have little time to go home visit their parents. There are increasing numbers of empty nest old people, but who is there to listen to what's in their hearts? The development of the city is definitely exciting, but we ought to be concerned with the deep social problems as well.") more ›

Since Shanghaiist kicked off in July this year, we've inflicted opinion after opinion on you, our faithful readership. Here comes a whole bunch more. more ›