Whatever you think of her acting, Zhang Ziyi has without question been the most visible thespian to break out of China for the last ten years and now, CineAsia is recognizing that by naming her the "actress of the decade". more ›

Zhang Ziyi has re-emerged to promote her new film "A Tale of Magic" directed by Gu Changwei. Gu is known for his directorial debut, "Peacock", which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005 and frequent collaborations with Chinese directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. more ›

Good news for those of you who have yet to catch Avatar (and seriously, what is taking you so long?). The popular flick’s final day of screening in 3D format in China’s major cities has once again been deferred from March 14 (which we told you about last week), until March 28th—a full two weeks longer than expected. more ›

• Prolific blogger and tongue-in-cheek foreigner "hater" Hung Huang talks about how she agrees with the phrase "One Zhang Ziyi [is] more effective than ten thousand Confuciuses" and why China should focus on its "soft power." [CN Reviews]
• You know why China produces so many clever people but so few geniuses? Because... This. Is. SPARTA!! (In terms of educational similarities) [New York Times]
• It probably doesn't help that the people who do pursue PHDs and think outside of the box enough to go to another country tend to stay in the country they've emigrated to. [WSJ]

Shanghaiist's inhouse sex scandals specialist Kenneth Tan writes about the six sex scandals that have rocked China over the last few years and given our readers a super hardon. It should perhaps be of no surprise that some of these scandals count among this website's most trafficked stories. This post promises to end your year with a blast, so read on: more ›

To start off our Holiday Superlatives extravaganza, let's take a good look here at home first. Wonder what Shanghaiist readers were flipping through this year? Here are the top five most looked at stories from January to June of 2009. more ›

• Somebody from ABC News has offered up her ways to see Shanghai on a "shoestring." Classic offenders Yu Yuan, Xintiandi and Nanjing Road are there, but what do you think of her other ideas? [ABC News]
• Roots & Shoots have told us that the Linkin Park concert did a little more good than just rockin' out the populace. 7RMB from tickets sold in Shanghai and Macau were donated to the charity's Million Tree Project - resulting in 6,597 trees to be planted next April.
• Zhang Ziyi was hanging out in our fair city yesterday to help launch the Omega 2009 Constellation watch collection at SOGO. She got the opportunity to "delve deeply into her fascination with watchmaking." Zhang! We never knew you loved to tinker! [Vialuxe]

Source: CRI Talk China more ›

Forbes has released its list of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities, which surveys the who's who of China to rank them based on personal income, public influence, internet reach and commercial value. more ›

U.S.-based ladmag Complex has compiled a list of what they consider the Nine Hottest Chinese Women. While we're not ones to argue whether the women compiled in the list are actually hot, we were a little surprised by some of the inclusions (Christy who?). We were also a little bemused by how many pictures involved the women getting sprayed with liquids. Apparently Asia is one giant wet t-shirt contest. more ›

Status Tee, an indie design shop in Beijing, bases a hunk of its t-shirt designs off of Chinese Internet culture. It has now released two shirts commemorating the first sex scandal of the year. The fronts have a character advocating privacy, while the backs feature the now infamous beach photos of the lovely Zhang Ziyi and her fiancée, Vivo Nevo. Oh, the internet is a cruel mistress. Source: 56minus1. more ›

The Straits Times reports that actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) has made her first public appearance since pictures of her canoodling topless with her Israeli fiance Vivi Nevo at a beach hit the interwebs. According to the report, Zhang had a "forced smile" at the show. Also:

She avoided reporters by shunning the red carpet but, in a speech on stage, she appeared to allude to being indifferent to online criticism that she had shamed China by sunbathing topless with Israeli investor Vivi Nevo. more ›

... aren't here, you naughty bastards. Lately, lots of people have been stumbling on this website through Google searches of Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) while other concerned readers have been writing in to us wondering about our curious silence on Zhang Ziyi's latest paparazzi photos, the biggest celebrity scandal to hit China after Edison Chen's "sexy photo gate". Well those pictures, all 81 of them, belong to X71online.com who's been known to sue bloggers for using their pictures without permission (even the great Perez Hilton has stopped using their pics after getting sued by them for US$7.5 million). Those brave ballsy souls at ChinaSmack, though, have ripped the pictures and put all of them up on their website. We decided to put up the two animated gifs they found (created by bored Chinese netizens) that totally cracked us up after the jump [NSFW, and not safe for consumption if you've just had dinner]. more ›

Has Sharon Stone been drinking too much lately? You be the judge. Here's what she said on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival when asked about the earthquake that has devastated the Sichuan Province:

Well you know it was very interesting because at first, you know, I am not happy about the ways the Chinese were treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don’t like THAT. more ›

We think we'd be all right if we never, ever watched the CCTV Spring Festival gala again, but we almost regret it this time because we missed out on some real doozies, like Zhang Ziyi's terrible lip-synching episode and as well as the slight faux pas, made by one of the hosts, that China's south was in the midst of an "abundant spring" even though many of the southern provinces are facing the worst winter weather they've seen in decades. more ›

Attracting celebrities, dignitaries, and mass media coverage, the Opening Ceremonies are a highlight of the Games, showcasing the spirit of Special Olympics and the athlete's achievements through the theme I know I can. more ›

Ever thought of what you're doing to offset your carbon footprint? This Saturday, instead of driving your car or taking a taxi, why don't you try taking public transport, cycling or walking instead? Residents will be asked to avoid driving private cars within the Inner Ring Road, and while compliance is not mandatory, driving will be banned outright in some areas.
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We're not sure Bai Ling's latest lady parts on display counts as news, given the fact that her private parts are more well-publicized than she is. But, combine the Bai-sexual actress' escapades with Zhang Ziyi's body double's web-search for love; add the biggest dick in China; and throw in a PRC plug for "sexy famous models... touching each other," and we'll take the bait. more ›

With 2005's film version of Memoirs of a Geisha, Chinese people across the world had more reason to hate Zhang Ziyi and foamed at the mouth yet again saying, We’re not Japanese. You would have thought that by now the West would have cottoned onto the message. more ›

A CCTV.com 'report' entitled "Uniqueness of 10 hot female stars in China" was recently brought to our attention. It had us laughing out loud (but it also might help explain why China has a soaring suicide rate among females). Below, you will find the entire text of the in-depth story. For the accompanying photos, you can click on the link above. more ›

It may be the pariah for self-respecting filmmakers (and film buffs) everywhere, but if it’s true that there’s no business like show business, then, the Oscars are anything but irrelevant. Case in point: The recent announcement that China will have not one, but two of its own submitted for consideration in the crapshoot otherwise known as the Best Foreign Film category. Of course, it never hurts when you’re able to find a loophole in the system. For all intents and purposes, the would-be blockbuster The Banquet should be represented by the mainland -- it features one of China’s most beloved (and commercially successful) auteurs in Feng Xiaogang, while starring Chinese megastars Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Xun. So how come it ended up as Hong Kong’s submission? Well, the catch is that The Banquet is a Hong Kong-China co-production, which means those of you who were pulling hard for Johnnie To backed the wrong horse. more ›

How does the other half live? Shanghaiist is talking about our print media counterparts — you know, the ones that have actual deadlines and office space to fuss over. We won’t pretend to put ourselves in their shoes (well, some of us might, seeing as how we occasionally swing both ways — in the non-biblical sense, of course), but we can, at least appreciate an alliterative headline, a punchy lead, and some slick, savvy reporting. Oh, and artsy photos — we like those too. So without further ado, we bring you Shanghaiist Reads, where we tell it like they tell it — only better. And without costing you a dime. (Just kidding ... we love our local rags. And they’re free.) Think of our summary of what's in the local mags as a tribute to our print brothers and sisters who fight the good fight — and still have time to come to our website when their bosses aren’t looking. more ›

Probably not the best word choice by Xinhua for their headline, but they do list the highest-paid Chinese actresses, based on annual salary (they say their source was cfi.net.cn). Here's the list (figures in USD): more ›

At least they don't lag behind in anything important!

Compiled by Peijin Chen and Dan Washburn more ›

First the sad news: Man kills prostitute, gets the death penalty. Much to everyone's surprise they found the woman's diary -- 60 pages worth, all letters of love and devotion to her husband. 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 ›

Shanghaiist has a retraction to make -- what we previously dubbed the "Chinese Oscars" in this post was absolutely wrong, because, naturally, the 6th Chinese Language Movie Awards (第6届华语电影传媒大奖）deserve this title. This awards ceremony had previously been held in the mainland, but this time (April 17), they moved it to Hong Kong. And guess who won? Tony Leung Ka-fei (Liang Jiahui) won best actor for the 80th eighth time for his role in Election (Hei Shehui). The only "surprise" came in the success of Peacock (孔雀), the debut film from cinematographer turned director Gu Changwei, which took home awards for best director, best original screenplay, and best actress for Zhang Jingchu. Election won best film awards, again. We don't get it -- if all these film awards are pretty much the same, and there are so many of them, then isn't each one worth correspondingly less? Does this really award good cinema, or is it just a kind of collective Chinese movie industry circle-jerk in installments? You be the judge. more ›

The Hong Kong film awards ceremony was held last night, and unsurprisingly, there were no suprises, no upsets, nothing except the same banal shit. You can read about it here. A note about that article: It says that the HK Film Awards are the Chinese Oscars, even though Shanghaiist thought that the Golden Horse awards over in Taiwan were the Chinese Oscars. Which one is it? Or should the Golden Rooster awards be considered as well? more ›