Although relatively unknown outside of Asia, with the Jackie Chan vehicle Around the World in 80 Days as one of her Hollywood credits, Karen Mok is a superstar. One can’t walk down the street without seeing her image splashed on various billboards for watches, cameras, and other lifestyle products. I’m still waiting for the […]

Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body responsible for nominating and selecting the winning films for the Academy Awards, announced the short list of 15 films competing for the Oscar for Best Documentary. If you’re not familiar with the AMPAS, this is the academy referred to in 99% of all Oscar […]

When Vanity Fair is not taking pictures of nude pregnant actresses for its cover, the magazine can at times put forth a captivating feature. In the December issue, on newsstands now, art writer Barbara Pollack presents a comprehensive view of the Chinese art scene, the conditions that created it and the monster it has […]

If you wake up Tuesday morning in Shanghai and something is amiss, perhaps the air has a tinge of the Can Can fragrance and off in the distance you can hear faint utterances of “that’s hot,” it may be because there’s a certain heiress in town. Fresh off a stint in jail, Paris Hilton arrives […]

On Sunday a black sabbath fell upon Shanghai as one of the original auteurs of nu-metal, Linkin Park, commandeered the stage at Hong Kou Stadium for their long awaited debut in China. According to China Daily, making this show extra special was the fact that this was the first open air concert by a major […]

The Fat Ladies Are Singing in China
If you’ve ever channel surfed in mainland China, you know that 23 of the 40 available channels are devoted to Chinese women in headdresses singing in pitches so high that you’re thankful your television screen doesn’t shatter. This would be the Peking opera and there’s a lot of […]

Affordable couture has finally come to China. Whether you’re at Plaza 66 in Shanghai or at the Landmark in Hong Kong, shopping for designer labels usually means sacrificing a couple of meals or 30 unless, of course, you happen to be an investment banker or on an expat package. For the rest of us, […]

This column serves not only as a tribute to a great man with a great name, but it captures all those moments in China that make you stop for a second and do a double take. We have transmogrified “Oh snap!” to bring you “Bo Zaaaang!”

Venturing out to Mong Kok, an area of Hong […]

A Beijing moviegoer has filed suit against China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television for censoring the sex out of Ang Lee’s latest film Lust, Caution. Dong Yanbin, a graduate student at China University of Political Science and Law, claimed the missing 30 minutes of footage cut by Lee to adhere to China’s […]

In 2005, Chinese author/actress/weirdo Niki Yan wrote the autobiographical novel “My Love for You, Tom Cruise — A Desperate Chinese Girl’s Confession,” chronicling her journey from a poor Chinese village to America four years earlier. While the tale of a young Chinese girl escaping poverty in a small village and realizing her dream has […]