‘You Just Made A French Concession!’ And Other Heckles For Anelka At Tonight’s Beijing Guoan Home Opener

Charles Platiau / Reuters
Before you go racing to Workers Stadium though, you should know Anelka — the former Chelsea and French national team star — may not play tonight due to injury (game-time decision). Also, you may not want to chant “French Concession,” considering the last guy who used that phrase publicly got fined 47,500 yuan. And really,... Read more »

This Is Either The Worst Or Best Pole Dance Ever [UPDATE]

Best or worst pole dance ever
UPDATE: The above video was appended on 3/18. It features Ayo Technology and Don’t Cha. The Chinese Pole Dancing Championship is about to start (apparently), and the woman in the video after the jump (it’s there because it auto-plays) is sixty-something [correction: born in the 1960s] Shi Xiaohong (according to title). All we know for... Read more »

Would Drunken Drake Let Himself Be Taken Advantage Of At A Massage Parlor? Nah, Not Him

Drake Moreau
We all have our routines when we're drunk or tired. My friend Drew recently introduced me to the idea of visiting spas. It’s a terrible idea. It can’t be good for the body, especially one as horribly abused as mine, to endure further dehydration in a steam room after 10-plus-hours of drinking. But there we were one night, half-naked in a wooden room, flambéing as steam filled the metal box around us.

Bo Xilai, Be Well, And Godspeed

Bo Xilai
Earlier today, Bo Xilai was ousted from his post as party secretary of Chongqing, a stunning — if not altogether unexpected — end to an unusually public saga that began when Wang Lijun showed up at the US embassy in Chengdu on February 6 with dirt on his former boss. At 11:43 am, a film... Read more »

How Do I Hate Shanghai? Let Me Count The Ways

A real picture of Beijing
Earlier this week the Economist Intelligence Unit released “Hot Spots,” a report commissioned by Citigroup that “ranks the competitiveness of 120 of the world’s major cities.” There aren’t many surprises: US and European cities remain the most competitive overall; Asian cities do well economically; New York and London are ranked 1-2. We in Beijing really... Read more »