This Shanghaiist isn’t a massive fan of travel writing. As interested as we are in other places and in travelling, we’d rather experience these places ourselves – we don’t like someone else spoiling all the surprises for us. We’ve also become a bit tired of reading work by Westerners “experiencing” China, given that these pieces often tend to say the same shallow things: China is currently in the midst of rapid economic growth (gasp!); the......

Everyone is complaining about the snow and how difficult it makes walking dogs, getting cabs, getting out of train stations and how ayi is on holiday for the next couple weeks. This Shanghaiist has been inspired by the words of Doctor Seuss:“When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad… You should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people......

Well, 2007 is pretty much over. This Shanghaiist has never really been a big New Year's person, maybe because we always end up the odd one out at midnight or the one that has to break up the drunken fights that erupt. But, in the spirit of the season we have decided to do that traditional (way over done) recap of the past year. 2007 was a big year for music in Shanghai and below......

We are all sorry for Wei Hui's misery, but we still loathe her notorious Shanghai Baby—exactly what in this book attracts people? A slutty Shanghainese girl has an affair with disloyal married German man? C'mon, like these kind of stories aren't rampant in Shanghai? When we learned this book was adapted into a movie, we felt even worse. This Shanghaiist, as a Shanghainese woman, thinks this trash movie is going to make the reputation of......

This Shanghainese native, unlike many other Chinese, actually prefers not to use many of the cartoon icons when chatting with others via MSN Messenger. The use of cartoon icons could be considered an internet phenomenon younger generations of Chinese. At first it started with Yoyo&Cici Monkeys (悠嘻猴), a launch by Chinajoy at the beginning of 2006 driven by commercial purposes. Later in 2006, the cartoon Onion replaced the Yoyo&Cici Monkeys to be the most popular......

Are you in the Chinese stock market? No, this isn’t a reprint of the post from last month. We ask because yesterday, both the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges dropped about nine percent, registering their biggest decline in a decade, surpassed only by the sell off the day after late reformist leader Deng Xiaoping died in 1997. A month ago, Shanghaiist told you about the national mania that is the local stock market. While both the......

Shanghaiist has always been intrigued by the bits of Western history and culture that seep into the Chinese mainstream — the terrifying, ungodly mix of Buicks, Kenny G, and Da Shan gives us a headache, but is fascinating to behold. Though not quite as fascinating as washing your hair with birth control pills. The latest addition to the cultural canon is an encouraging step up: The American civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King. His life......

Have we mentioned China Unicom is about to launch a pushmail service dubbed the “RedBerry”? Oh yeah, we have, here, here and here. This Shanghaiist went so far as calling it a worthy challenger to the BlackBerry. But, now we aren’t so sure. Sage Brennan from Pacific Epoch uncovered this interesting, albeit somewhat disturbing tidbit: Facio Software, the outfit behind China Unicom's new RedBerry "Uni-Pushmail" service, is selling the new handset and service through its......

This Shanghaiist is a Shanghainese girl who doesn’t get near as much attention as the "whiteys" (or is it "whities"?) in this city do, however I/we feel your pain when you've got someone shouting “Laowai!!!” or staring at you as if you were an alien walking down the street. This Shanghai Daily report now brings us some hope for you foreigners -- well, at least a little bit. The city is currently recruiting 400 volunteers......