Thursday marked the end of the 5-day Christie’s Auction in Hong Kong, and thank goodness as I’m starting to run short of MC Hammer references. Christie’s managed to beat it’s pre-auction estimates of HK$1.8 billion even though 214 items from the 2,400 piece lot remain unsold. Preliminary estimates indicate that the auction house took […]

Samuel P. Huntington’s book, The Clash of Civilizations posited that the post-Cold war political map would be distinguished by a conflict between cultures. In other words, different strokes for different folks equals bad news . However true some would argue that his theory came to fruition when it comes to what he defines as […]

This section will strive to bring you short sweet facts, digestible in 30 seconds, related to all forms of art, and fun to bring up in random conversations with strangers if you’re so inclined.
It’s August 1896 and you’re in Shanghai. You’re out looking for a good time, but what do you do? It’s hot and […]

With what has got to be the only film festival title that makes you arch your eyebrows when you read the name, the Big Screen International Film Festival, yep I told you, hits Kunming today. The soirée first took place in Italy 5 year’s ago, but was then moved to Kunming as part of the […]

In an update to the Christie’s story posted last week, the first day of this auction went off with a bang like the Hindenberg. Breaking the bank for modern Chinese art was Cai Guo Qiang’s fourteen piece gunpowder and ink set, created for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, that went to an anonymous buyer Sunday […]

The Stir Art Gallery in Shanghai’s Luwan district opens a photo exhibition Tuesday entitled “The Other Side of Reality” featuring the works of 23-year-old Jiangxi photographer Yan De Xiu. The obscured photos straddle the line between camera and computer as well as the line between reality and the photographic reality. Stir wrote of […]

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money
Jet Li’s ability to do the impossible on film has wowed audiences for years. Now he’s making jaws drop for utterly different reasons. His latest foray into film, Warlord, has made him the highest paid actor in a Chinese language film. For this epic, based on a Qing […]

Silence and anticipation will grip the S.A.R. this Sunday as Christie’s Hong Kong gears up for its biannual auction. Going on the block is a mix of 2,400 pieces of classic and contemporary art valued at HK$1.8 billion, said to be the largest collection of Asian finery up for grabs. Jonathan Stone, international […]

History has a tendency of repeating itself. Looking at the current landscape, it’s like the late 19th century all over again with foreign entities coming in to carve up a piece of China. Even though the trade is no longer in opium, a new drug has hastened the slicing and dicing of the market. […]

The Man Booker Prize has spawned a child, the Man Asian Literary Prize, and taking the inaugural award home this year is Beijing author Jiang Wong for his novel Wolf Totem. Having been relocated to Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution himself, Jiang’s novel vividly explores life in Mongolia during this period. There’s no doubt […]