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......

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......

Some members of the Shanghaiist team are about to embark on ambitious Chinese New Year's expeditions. We wish everyone planning similar journeys a happy and safe trip. So you know what to look for, we're starting a list of the three biggest threats to your life as the year of the rat begins. 1. The Cold: This year's a cold one and it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. See posting below. 2.......

By Derek Sandhaus Its hardly news to say that China has a bad record when it comes to animal cruelty. Less than ten days after China began working on raising the bar for treatment of slaughter animals it looks like more trouble is brewing for our furry friends, this time in Hubei province. Earlier this week authorities were shocked to discover that a Siberian tiger, a critically endangered species, was brutally dismembered and skinned at......

Live Bar has always been open to different genres of music, and of late, seems to be the venue of choice for Chinese folk, metal and student bands. Friday night they will host one of China's most popular nu-metal bands, Twisted Machine. Any fan of metal should not miss this show, a great chance to see what Chinese metal has to offer. On the other side of town, up'n'coming indie rockers, Yuguo will play an......

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: With all the recent talk about scary Chinese-made toothpaste, do we have a reason to be worried? Black and White Cat does a number on a test tube and unscientifically concludes: yes, if you eat it. Shanghaiist doesn't even brush, so we think we're OK. Ben Ross finishes up his one month experience working at a Fuzhou hair salon with some closing thoughts,......

Comic Paul Merton has recently been touring China, making a light hearted documentary that is currently being aired on Channel Five in the UK. If the few clips we have seen are anything to go by, then this follows the best tradition of whimsical British travelogues such as Louis Theroux's Wild Weekend. Highlights include a visit to Mr Woo who makes amazing robots out of rubbish, much to the frustration of his long suffering wife.......

Sh Shanghai: 200-yuan car horn fines "Shanghai is about to become a quieter city - from June 1, drivers of cars, mopeds and bikes will be banned from blaring horns within the Outer Ring Road." We don't see this being enforced. Two city spots crowned in China's list of top scenic sites "Shanghai's Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Wild Animal Park were crowned as two of China's top-grade scenic spot, according to a list......

Still recovering from your May Holiday partying? Well, there's no respite. Here are a few things that Shanghaiist is keeping an eye on over the coming week. Thursday May 10th Photography Exhibition Reception: Shanghai - The New Noir. Photography exhibitions appear to be a 2007 trend. Tonight, see the opening reception of photographer Heungman's collection. The exhibition contrasts the great metropolies of New York and Shanghai, and explores their lurking "sinister energies". Shanghai: The New......

Late last year, Shanghaiist ran several stories on the abhorrent Animal Olympics event held in Shanghai. Such was the media and public backlash against this event, we didn't expect to see performances of its ilk again in Shanghai. Optimists like us are often proven wrong. Shanghai Wild Animal Park, the organisers of last year's Animal Olympics, appear to be up to their old tricks. We mentioned yesterday that the UK's Daily Mail ran photographs......

China to take up currency row directly with US Congress "Tough-talking Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi is to meet with key Congressional panels during her visit to Washington this month for a "strategic economic dialogue" launched by the two powers in December, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said." Survey on standard of living for migrant workers A survey found that the standard of living of migrant workers isonly about one half of that of city......

Would you believe that we get emails fairly regularly from people looking for even the most basic information about the China Baseball League? We wrote a story about the pro league back in 2004, and it's a testament to how little English info about the league exists out there that it's still one of most widely read CBL sources on the internet (it helps that Wikipedia linked to it). And so we have people asking......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

It's that time of year again—the Oscars are this Monday (Sunday night in the US) and in the spirit, 163.com decided to ask Chinese netizens what their favorite movie line or dialogue from a Chinese movie was as well as what the best overall Chinese film was. You can still vote, so the results are still being tabulated and updated, but preliminary results are in: the best movie dialogue is from the Wong Kar-wai film......

Wild scenes of celebration, drunken tomfoolery, and a stampede of autograph hunters scrambling over tables and chairs were highlights of the evening as major stars from the world of Chinese football attended a fans event in the city on Saturday night. Shanghaiist was there to witness the rowdy goings-on, after unwittingly finding himself among the guests of honour at the Chinese New Year party of Shanghai Shenhua FC’s biggest supporters group, the Blue Devils. The......

We used to work with an English girl named Catherine who would speak of "Eau de Shanghai" in a joking manner whenever we would walk past an alleyway that exuded one of our city's more heinous distinctive smells. We think Catherine would be amused by a product we discovered today — yes, Shanghai Perfume. Evidently, it's been around since 2003. Here's a sampling of the product descriptions: "Shanghai comes in EDP SPR 1.7oz Launched by......

What would be your response if we were to pose the question, "what is better than a black bear and a white Siberian tiger sporting traditional sevillanas dresses, adorned with flowers and dancing a Spanish Flamenco under the bright lights of a ballroom platform, televised for all of the world to see?" Well, if you're like us, then kangaroo boxing and monkey-ostrich pair jousting may come to mind. But, now, it seems that some international......

Late last month, we told you about the Shanghai Wild Animal Olympics, and we probably didn't infuse the post with the proper amount of outrage. Thankfully, some commenters picked up our slack and even directed readers to the animalsasia.org website, which includes information on how you can help put an end to such disgusting displays. We will now quote that information here: What we are doing AAF is writing to the Mayor of Shanghai calling......

Shanghaiist didn't read the Shanghai Daily closely enough on September 22, when they ran article about the Wild Animal Olympics that started this past Thursday and will supposedly run until late November. In fact, we didn't learn about it until today when we saw these pictures from Xinhua, including 3 year old chimpanzee Bao Bao, looking sharp in pinstripes. The Shanghai Daily article states that 10 year old elephant Mary will play in the soccer......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on......

And we're not talking about those wild 20 year olds looking for man meat from the state of Washington -- we mean yaks and wolves and the like: The government would auction licenses based on types and numbers of wild animals, ranging from about $200 for a wolf, the only carnivore on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, the Beijing Youth Daily said. These licenses are being sold with the cooperation......

Shanghaiist asked its contributors (and a few "music people" in town) to list their five favorite albums released (or yet-to-be released) somewhere in the world in 2006. Got a list of your own? Submit your favorite 2006 music as a comment to this post. Enjoy! Neil Yeung (no, not that Neil Young), Shanghaiist contributor Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones: On their latest LP, YYYs dug themselves out of the dank and metallic underground warehouse......

Our guess: two. By now, you have likely heard of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and his run-in with a coconut tree. But did you know he almost suffered what sounds like it could have been a much more serious head injury in Shanghai? On stage? Danwei has the dirt: The onstage incident, which has not been reported in the traditional media, occurred during the encore. The Stones had cruised through their hit-heavy set, largely......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the gift that keeps giving, and Johnny......

Wild hare and boar can now be served in Shanghai restaurants. This follows the legalization of wild spotted deer earlier in the year. The Grand Hyatt in Pudong is one of the five restaurants in Shanghai that will offer the meats (if you don't count your neighborhood kebab guy who has been selling you "wild game" for years).Las Vegas is bracing for a Chinese invasion: "Chinese travelers love to shop and typically outspend guests from......

We didn't go to the Rolling Stones concert last night. And we have only heard from one person who did go, second hand at that. Here's the message we received today: my mate said the stones were ho-hum. bad sound. late start. no cabs at the end and rain. no beer. but mick jagger pretty strong performance. The Associated Press, the AFP and Reuters all had people at the show. They all talked about the......

Dog Year treats...

China admitted earlier this week that the bird flu situation here is "grave," especially for the 2,600 dead birds found in Inner Mongolia. Now, quite suddenly it seems, Shanghai is starting to act like it is taking the threat seriously (and Shanghaiist is having SARS flashbacks, like when immediately after the government stopped lying to the people and Shanghai University gave all the foreign teachers a thermometer ... and vitamins). It was announced yesterday that......