"The fall of Bo Xilai, like the fall of the Gang of Four, was a non-normal process. It only goes to show that the Chinese Communist Party has failed to evolve even by a hair's breadth over the last three decades. In countries under the rule of law, problematic officials are dealt with using legal measures. China, on the other hand, operates within the black box. Bo Xilai may not be evil, but his opponents Hu and Wen are no saints either. It gives me goosebumps to hear people like Wang Kang praising Wen, like someone has just let off a foul odour. more ›

Chinese author Murong Xuecun, described by some as being the best in his generation, recently popped up on Shanghaiist's radar for his account of an attempt to visit Cheng Guangcheng with a few of his friends. His profile in the New York Times, written by Edward Wong, was much discussed among China observers. Here's a video by Jonah Kessel which appeared together with the report more ›

"In China, especially in the cities, if someone fainted on the streets, or if someone was knocked over by a car, you'll find lots of gawkers and gloaters, but rarely will you find someone willing to extend a helping hand." more ›

Zhang Lijia, author of the book Socialism is Great, says that despite her great respect for Ai Weiwei, she disagrees with some of the things he said about Beijing in his recent article for Newsweek. In the article, Ai had described the city as a "constant nightmare" in which he had "no favorite place" left anymore. more ›

Zhang Lijia, author of the book Socialism is Great, offers us a personal anecdote on the identity of her mixed-race kids. She writes of a recent trip to Bangladesh with her daughters:

Everywhere we went, people asked us which country we were from. At point, May, my older daughter, aged at 14 (but going on 18) replied without thinking: “We are from England.” I immediately contracted her: “I am from China and my daughters are half-Chinese.” Later I pulled May aside and asked: “You were born in China; you spent 10 out of 14 years in China and you are living in China. How does it qualify you as ‘English’?” May blinked her big round eyes. “Well, if I tell people I am Chinese, people wouldn’t believe me.” more ›

Shanghai-born crime novelist Qiu Xiaolong (裘小龙) is the author of the celebrated Inspector Chen series that has a loyal following among readers not just in China, but also around the world. more ›

A group of writers and publishers, including Han Han, have gotten together to collect compensation from the likes of Baidu and Apple for selling their work without permission. more ›

"A Taiwan writer who aimed to kiss the land across China and make a jigsaw map using soils collected in each place filled his first bottle after kissing the ground in Xiamen, Fujian Province for nine seconds. Huang Hong-cheng planned to spend five years walking across the country and kiss the land in every province and municipality, the Modern Express reported today. Dressed in a coir raincoat and wearing a bamboo hat, Huang kneeled down and kissed the land for nine seconds. "Xiamen is the first stop of my mainland tour. The first kiss tasted like success," Huang said. Huang shot to fame in Taiwan after he spent two years and 43 days to kiss the land in 319 villages and counties in Taiwan and collected the soil. He made a map of Taiwan using the mud. He intended to make a mainland map the same way and invite celebrities on the both sides of the Taiwan Straits to sign their names on the map and pray for the Chinese nation." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Those of you who have been in Shanghai for a while will remember food writer Jarrett Wrisley, who started out at That's Shanghai and later helmed SH Mag's food column (he also wrote for Shanghaiist -- very briefly). In his latest column over at the Atlantic, Wrisley writes about the existential crisis he experienced late last year when he realised that the "best job in the world" (food writing) wasn't a real job anymore because "[f]ood magazines were floundering", "[e]ditors backpedaling" and “I had more outstanding payments from publications than I had money in my bank account”. And with that, he decided to take the plunge and start a bar and restaurant in Bangkok, where he is now based. The bar will serve Thai food, "mostly the sort you'd eat on the street." From all of us at Shanghaiist, good luck, Jarrett! more ›

Lineage lovers take heed: another Mao has been added to the political mix! According to Singtao News, Mao Xinyu, the grandson of Mao Zedong, has become the youngest general in the Military at the ripe age of thirty nine. Besides being the youngest man to be appointed to such high office, he is also the first general to be born after 1970, which seems to explain his Aretha Franklin-eqsue hand movements. more ›

If there was a world record for the quickest post-death biographies ever written, this one would probably win. Two Chinese writers have written an "instant book" on Michael Jackson spanning 130,000 words... in just 48 hours. Entitled "Moonwalk in Paradise - the Michael Jackson biography", the book became available for pre-order on Friday and landed on China's bookshelves on Saturday. The writers "didn't sleep for two days" and survived off of coffee and cigarettes until the book was done. Neither have ever met or interviewed Jackson, instead simply compiling the story from their "accumulated knowledge about the king of pop." Going by what our writing tends to look like after two days of no sleep, we bet the second half of this bio looks like brilliant, not-quite-lucid nonsense. Source: China Daily more ›

The live music selection may be amazing this weekend, but it's not the only thing going on! Today also marks the beginning of two super special events and if you're a fan of sexy things or literary things (or sexy literary things), you've got great reason to be psyched. more ›

Go here to listen to Terry Gross' interview with Beijing-based (and formerly Shanghai-based) writer James Fallows, The Atlantic's "man in China." Fallows discusses a variety of topics, including China's extensive investment in the United States (see his Atlantic story on the topic here), his new book of China essays (excerpt on Danwei), internet censorship and his recently deceased father. Around the 24-minute mark, Fallows makes some interesting statements about how he thinks Chinese people would have voted in the recent U.S. election — we're curious how his observations compare to what Shanghaiist readers saw and heard leading up to November 4. more ›

Cyber dissident Wang Dejia was arrested for "subverting state secrets" (what else?), which means penning too many articles critical of the government. Some of those critical essays pertained to the upcoming summer Olympics:

In recent months, Wang also gave an interview to the Epoch Times, a media group backed by the banned sect F@lun G0ng, in which he claimed the Olympics would exacerbate the sufferings of Chinese people and leave them "living like dogs and pigs." more ›

One of our favorite Chinese sites seems to have run afoul of the net nanny: vip.bokee.com has been on again off again, but perfectly viewable with a proxy. Using the proxy we saw an article about a list published in a Chengdu newspaper of the top-grossing authors in China, at least based on royalties from the sales of their books. At the top of the list was a Guo Jingming, a young author (born in... more ›

In this week's edition of "Shanghaiist Trashes the Media" we have an article from the Sydney Morning Herald. Here's the premise: more ›

Photo by CaptainVideo 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 ›

Shanghaiist doesn't often get emails from the American consulate here in Shanghai. But when we do, they are usually telling us that the likelihood of bad people trying to kill us has either increased or decreased. So, the email we received yesterday was a refreshing change ... and it actually came from a real person. This is what the consulate wanted Shanghaiist and all other Americans to know: If you have always dreamed of dressing up as a member of the military, appearing in a Chinese movie and learning to rumba -- all at the same time -- Friday just may be your lucky day! more ›