Radiohead is now the latest in a growing (if slowly) trend of Western celebs opening Sina weibo accounts to reach out to their Chinese followers. Last Friday, the English mega-stars made their inaugural "tweet", which was a rather lifeless "testing the weibo." Either they didn't expect the resulting response, or they simply didn't care to draft an initial message with any feeling to the Chinese weibo universe. That intial post has, in four days, been forwarded almost 11,000 times and received 4,100 comments, and they have received over 60,000 followers. more ›

Carrying our (fake) LV bag, slung as an afterthought over our arm sporting a (fake) diamond-encrusted Rolex, on our way to load up on the latest in (fake) DVDs at the neighbourhood store, Shanghaiist wonders why any country would not resort to the levels of rampant piracy that afford us such (fake) decadence. But intellectual property rights (IPR) have their merits, we suppose ... if they didn't, why the big push by economists and government officials to step up IPR protection in developing economies? more ›

In case you needed reminding, M:I:3 may not be screened in China, where 20 percent of its scenes were shot, because: more ›

Photo by Mike Chen 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 ›

Obviously, the filmmakers didn't model their characterization on Shanghai's adroit and fast-acting anti-jaywalking force. Despite 20 percent of Tom Cruise's M:I:3 being shot in China, its China release has been "delayed indefinitely," primarily because the skin of local officials appears to be as thin as that found on a finely prepared xiaolongbao. From the Shenzhen Daily: more ›

Photo by monkeyking 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 ›

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 ›

This story tells us that Shanghai's Madam Tussauds museum will open May 1 and feature 21 wax figures of "celebrities like Jackie Chan." And we always though Jackie was one of a kind. What other celebrities are like Jackie Chan, you ask? Here's a sampling: more ›

Remember what we told you about Mission: Impossible III holding its world premier in Shanghai next month? Um, yeah -- that's not happening anymore. So all you people camped out in front of the Grand Theater can go home now. The Shanghai Morning Post reports: more ›

It didn't seem like Tom Cruise was in China all that long, considering 40 percent of the film is reportedly supposed to take place here (but apparently not all Shanghainese will be sad to see him go). Cruise and Mission: Impossible 3 director J.J. Abrams talked with journalists yesterday atop Bund 18. They must not have said much because we only found one quote in the two stories we read about the "press conference." Cruise said of Shanghai: "It's spectacular. It's unbelievable. It's going to look extraordinary on film." He said he plans on coming back to China as a tourist some day. There was also reportedly a moment during the rooftop gathering that involved Cruise singling out a Chinese journalist who started talking on his mobile phone -- Cruise insisted that he talk to the person on the other end ... and he even said Ni hao and Xie xie! He is SO DREAMY! (Good thing it wasn't a squirt phone.) more ›

Tom Cruise is crazy about China -- scrap that, he's just plain crazy -- and it seems China is crazy for him, too. Xitang, an ancient water town in Zhejiang, will "close from tomorrow" (which we think means today) for the filming of Mission: Impossible III. That's right, they are closing an entire town (or so the story makes it seem ... no other details were given). more ›

If you're like Shanghaiist and waited to see War of the Worlds on the big screen, please don't sit next to us at the Xintiandi theater next Tuesday -- unless you promise to stay quiet and turn your mobile phone off. The latest Cruise/Spielberg collaboration opens Thursday at a theater near you. War of the Worlds has gotten generally favorable reviews and has somehow managed to rake in more than $230 million in the US and around $600 million globally despite being readily available on the streets of Shanghai in pirated form. You can view the trailer over at Apple's site. And if all this ain't enough WOW for you, you can check out the musical stage version (we're not making this up) -- it's coming to China in 2007. Sounds crazy, right? But not as crazy as Tom Cruise -- he's planning an extravagant "Arabian Knights"-style wedding with "millions of flowers" in Mexico later this year. And then there's that whole cult thing. more ›

A Shanghai Daily story provides example number 1,029,349 why the Shanghai real estate market is so ridiculously inflated. With 47 square meter, semi-serviced studio apartments at Shanghai Centre going for $2,300 a month, it's no wonder Shanghai consistently manages to rank as one of the most expensive cities in the world ... all with the help of clueless foreign companies throwing piles of money at employee housing. According to the story: more ›

Get your squirt guns ready, folks. Everyone's favorite crazy man Tom Cruise will bring his freak show to Shanghai this November to film the "climactic final scenes" of Mission: Impossible III, according to Variety.com: more ›