Thanks to a group called 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors based out of San Francisco, we now can watch the first ever musical rap version of Chinese history! And they do it all in under four minutes. Full list of lyrics on Youtube. more ›

Apparently there are entire chopsticks gangs running around busy Chinese streets, preying on pedestrians ripe for the plucking! Who knows the necessary extent of kuaizi dexterity one must weld to pull metal and plastic from unsuspecting pockets, but these guys are clearly cashing out on their insane skills. more ›

If you've got tickets to the final episode taping of this season's China's Got Talent you're in for an extra treat. It's just come in that Susan Boyle, the overnight Scottish singing sensation, will make a special appearance on the final episode of the hugely popular China's Got Talent. The finale will take place right here at Shanghai's Grand Stadium on July 10 where Boyle will sing a few classical songs with local acts. Her contract appearance was signed many months ago but China's Got Talent production did not want to release the news until now for fear she may cancel for health reasons. Last year, the 50-yr old singer was booked to appear on Jiangsu Satellite TV's NY Eve special and canceled last minute citing poor physical and psychological health. more ›

It was only a matter of time before someone took the Rebecca Black "Friday" debacle and did a Chinese version. Well, here ya go--featuring the gentle stylings of Taiwanese American Youtube singer Dawen. more ›

Alexandra Wallace, the girl behind last week's racist Youtube tirade against the Asian population at UCLA, has decided to drop out after mounting harassment and ostracism in the fallout from the video. While UCLA itself decided not to discipline her (the video is an exercise, however appalling, in free speech), Wallace has received death threats and has since "decided to stop attending classes." She released this apology in a statement to the campus newspaper: “Especially in the wake of the ongoing disaster in Japan, I would do anything to take back my insensitive words. I could write apology letters all day and night, but I know they wouldn’t erase the video from your memory, nor would they act to reverse my inappropriate action.” (For some entertaining parodies of the video, check out our post from last week.) more ›

While it still doesn't seem to be up on Chinese video sites, someone uploaded all of the Expo closing ceremonies to Youtube. Above is the fanfare before the speeches start. I'm not sure how interested anyone is in actually seeing the whole thing, since it was much less of a spectacle than the opening ceremonies, but I've put all the videos (and their section names - in case a part named "Fusion of Art and Music" whets your appetite) after the jump. more ›

Ah, video mash-ups, how we love you. Today's video of the day is a fabricated conversation between President Obama (taken from his town hall in Shanghai) and Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (from a press conference) where Qin demands Obama answer the question "do you have children?" Of course, we all know about Sasha and Malia, but that's not the point: what follows is a brief conversation about censorship between two ideological ships passing in the night. Obama talks about the worlds opened to his daughters by the internet while Qin waxes on how censoring the internet is one of the most important things we can do to protect our kids (or the ones we'll have someday). Will "do you have children?" become the new Chinese internet meme? more ›

If you've lived in China a while, you start to think of the Great Firewall as simply a fact of life: a cultural quirk sometimes and a major pain the ass others. But if this latest YouTube/blog/Wikipedia ban's got you flummoxed (and you're too cheap/poor to get a VPN), check out some of our favourite free ways to get up and over the Great Firewall. more ›

Have you been missing laughing babies and sneezing pandas? Haven't seen Star Wars kid in too long of a time? Or you just wanted to feel plugged into the international video-trading scene again? more ›

It seems that we are getting reports around Shanghai that the block may be over and Youtube is back up. Much like the previous wonky Youtube ban though, it seems to only be working for some of us right now. Log your experiences here and on Herdict. more ›

Update (4:45PM): The AFP has corrected the story. The new version sent out across the wires now reads at the top "ATTENTION - CORRECTION: REMOVES quotes from blogger Marc van der Chijs in paras 15-19 which were mistakenly taken from comments made in a blog dated 2007. Here is a corrected repetition." In an email to Shanghaiist, an AFP employee wrote: "The story went out this morning so it should be corrected before it is published in any Australian newspapers and web site versions should also be updated and corrected automatically." more ›

According to several media reports, Xinhua has come out and said that separatists and supporters of the Dalai Lama had "fabricated" a video showing Chinese police officers brutally beating Tibetans after last year's riots. Though Xinhua didn't explicitly state the video, it's probably this one. Google has said it doesn't know the reason for the block, but "We are looking into it and working to ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible." So... we guess we won't be getting the 'tube back until either Youtube takes down the videos or Google finds some way to filter specific content from China IPs. Great. more ›

Ugh. Most of you have already noticed by now, but Youtube's been Great Firewall-ed for the second time this month. Unlike the weird half-assed blocking in early March though, it looks like this time the video site is down. completely. everywhere. more ›

Did you know China had a burgeoning parkour scene? We didn't either until 56minus1 discovered a bunch of online Chinese parkour groups, communities and forums. more ›

Everybody would like to know! Starting from last night, Youtube.com has been having intermittent issues all over the country - yet, because some people can't get on while some people can, it's hard to say whether we've all been great firewalled again (which happened last time around politically sensitive dates) or whether it's just some strange China-only technical glitch. more ›

Avid Youtube watchers rejoice, the days you struggled against the slow crawl of the Chinese Internet may soon be a relic of the past! Shanghai's Science and Technology Commission announced that the city will be getting an Internet service 50 to 100 times faster than current speeds sometime this year. more ›

While some of us spent Chinese New Year's Eve enjoying grilled seafood on a beach in the Philippines, Luis Tapia of Shanghai-based Daedalum Films was lugging his camera to a Shanghai rooftop to record the fireworks. The results, as you can see above, are beautiful (be sure to watch in HD). Thankfully, the video does not include actual sound (you probably got enough of that last night). Instead, the soundtrack is "El Pico" by Ratatat. You can buy that song on iTunes. Enjoy. more ›

Via City Weekend we learn that the documentary film about last year's Converse-sponsored (and Split Works organized) Love Noise rock music tour of China is now viewable at a DVD player near you. Love Noise put Beijing bands PK14 and Queen Sea Big Shark on a converted bus and sent them on a two-week, six-city tour during the height of Olympics craziness last August. The trailer to the Love Noise film is embedded in this post, and after the jump you'll find a slew of related clips, uploaded to YouTube six days ago. The director's first name is Hammer, so it's got to be good. more ›

China Tech News reports that about 80 copyright holders will be ganging up on Tudou for copyright infringement. Some of these companies in the alliance include Joy.cn, Beijing Polybona Film Distribution, Beijing Orange Sky Entertainment Group and SFS Emperor and are said to be suing for RMB10 million. Tudou is a video sharing website that is bigger than YouTube in China showing 1.2 billion videos each month including bootlegged versions of TV shows and clips from Hollywood movies. Tudou, possibly in response to this suit, will be launching a reporting system for copyright owners after Spring Festival that they are currently testing. Of course the alliance could be fishing for some of that $85 million they raised in funding, most of which is apparently just sitting in the bank. more ›

Kids really do say the darndest things! We almost fell off our chair watching this vlog. Basically this 16 year old gay expat teen in Shanghai has just come out to his parents and he decided to share his story with the world on Youtube. After telling his mother on Tuesday over Skype, Zach was half expecting to get a good lynching, as all gay teens do when they come out. What he got was a surprise of his own — his mom turned around and came out to him! Okay, we won't spoil the rest for you. Watch it for a good laugh! more ›

What do you think? more ›

From Danwei: "But conspicuously missing from the list are the Big Three of the Chinese Youtube clones: Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com. Although 56.com has been off line for nearly two weeks after an apparent porblem with the authorities, these three websites have the largest amount of funding of any video websites in China, most of it foreign. By most accounts they are also the most popular video sites in China." more ›

Standing a foot taller and six inches broader than anyone else on HuaiHai Lu, the young man who calls himself Red Laowai (George to his Mother) is easy to spot. Although this is his first trip to mainland China, George has already gathered a large following by recording video clips singing (mostly Communist) Chinese songs and releasing them on the internet. more ›

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It’s shaping up to be a bad week for the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (the catchily acronymed SARFT) – and it's still only Wednesday. Recent events surrounding bans of video sharing site Tudou and then actress Tang Wei (汤唯) seem to suggest that SARFT is slipping into farce. more ›

Editor's Note: This is an update to that flash mob we told you about earlier. The writer was the organiser of the event. more ›

People who made the news this week more ›

As mentioned before, US expatriates are, for the first time, able to vote in a global primary, meaning that they get their own set of delegates during the primaries, which decide each party's respective presidential candidate. This particular event, held on Tuesday at the ecologically sound and coolly designed URBN hotel, was well attended. Computers were set up to help people register, liquor and hors d'ouevres helped people mingle, and Barack Obama's victory speech from the South Carolina primary was played on a big screen. Melanie McGanney was there and wrote about it on the Huffington Post. Youtube has a video of the speech here, and you can see some more of our photos here. more ›

If you think Chinese children can't get any more obnoxious, go watch Please Vote for Me (via YouTube in five parts - p1, p2, p3, p4 and p5), an award-winning indie documentary and pay special attention to Cheng Cheng, the pudgy kid who is one of the three students running for the position of class monitor. He then gets increasingly irksome as he sabotages fellow elects and manipulates his classmates for votes. more ›

Have you got an opinion? Shanghaiist has started publishing opinion pieces from readers on selected weekends, so if you feel like you've got something to get off your chest, email it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com and if we like it, we will publish it under this column. more ›