By Jeffrey Wasserstrom This posting about the politics of pop concerts in Shanghai is mostly about an American duo (Jan and Dean), whose hits included “Surf City,” and the hard-to-categorize Icelandic songstress Bjork, who last week made headlines and drew the ire of the Chinese state by saying the words “Tibet, Tibet” after performing a song called “Declare Independence" (on the heels of which, there was apparent tinkering with Harry Connick Jr.'s song list at......

During this year's joint exhibition "Design Week" and "Sino-International Real Estate Summit" a seminar about New Public Space was held by FAR. This is a non-profit foundation to facilitate the communication and collaboration between architects in China and Shanghai. The eight speakers of this seminar covered a broad spectrum of topics. Starting with the presentation of architecture projects for public use and of projects covering bigger urban space, followed by a presentation of art in......

While we were "researching" information for this post, we came across an Answers.com entry about the Yangpu district which says that Wujiaochang was constructed in 1929, and the English name of it is "Pentagon Plaza." Maybe it's just because we're Americans, but we think that of all the English names we've heard for places, that's about the snazziest one. Well, not quite as snazzy as "Email Plaza" by Jing'an Park, but a close second. A......

Browsing the Ditiezu.com (Subway-ers) BBS, we came across some interesting tidbits: Rumors say that new Siemens 8-car trains are about to hit the Shanghai metro system on Lines 1 and 2, possibly the 15th of this month or possibly next month. This should do a bit to relieve the currently over-congested 6-car trains. The LCD displays on station platforms are being updated to show the capacity of the next arriving train.Tongji University administrative vice-principal, and......

After tea served in restaurants, the latest health warning is about ReNu contact lens solution, which is being taken off the shelves in China.If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down: Conserve residential water.No mercy shown for under-performing enterprises: If your firm isn't doing well enough, you'll be kicked out on your ass to make way for that holy grail, 'development'.Fang Zhouzhi continues his quest to expose the fraudsters. He has......

In a move to uphold restrictive cultural gender norms, Tongji University's College of Women, in cahoots with the Shanghai Women's Federation, will require its students to participate in what amounts to glorified home-ec classes in the upcoming Spring semester. Shanghai Daily reports:The courses will begin this spring semester despite a campus survey that found about 60 percent of students in the college are against the idea, many saying they went to university to learn profession......

We have no idea, but it's happening, according the subscription-only South China Morning Post (via the World Business Council for Sustainable Development): Paying scant attention to the lessons learned by European cities during the past 50 years, China is hurtling with speed and single-mindedness into the car era, favouring it over bicycles and motorbikes. It wants to become a car superpower, like the US and Japan, and sees a booming domestic market as key to......

The World Expo Shanghai is almost here! Yes, that's what we'll be saying in December 2009. Until then, we are relying on titbits of information fed to us by the Mayor of Shanghai.City Government approved the detailed construction plan for Shanghai Expo Shanghai Municipal Government has approved in principle the detailed construction plan for the red building lines of the Shanghai Expo Site on 31st Oct., revealed Shanghai Mayor Han Zhen at a municipal government’s......

Shanghaiist is all for water conservation, recycling and reuse. Which is why we're going to start pulling our weight to aid the water crisis which is afflicting the nation and Shanghai itself: The biggest Chinese metropolis ... has been added to the United Nations' list as one of the six cities predicted to experience severe drinking-water problems in this century. For starters, we're not going to bother wasting a cup a day on our stupid......