Galaxy Soho’s Homophobic Statement Was Apparently Result Of “One Bigoted Mid-Level Manager,” Everything Now Cool

Beijing Craft Beer Festival
Carl Setzer, owner of Great Leap Brewing -- one of the primary organizers of the Craft Beer Festival on Friday and Saturday at Galaxy Soho -- has informed us that Galaxy Soho is now allowing the Beijing LGBT Center to have an official presence at the second annual Craft Beer Festival this Friday and Saturday. Two days ago, That's Beijing reported that SOHO sent a message to the organizers of the beer festival that the LGBT Center was not welcome at the event because they "clashed with the architecture." That statement was apparently "the result of one bigoted mid-level manager," Setzer told us over email.

Expect Lots Of Drinkers From Beijing’s LGBT Community To Be At This Weekend’s Craft Beer Festival [UPDATE]

Galaxy Soho Craft Beer Festival LGBT
That's Beijing dropped a bombshell yesterday, reporting that Galaxy Soho's management apparently doesn't want the city's LGBT Center to have an official presence at the Craft Beer Festival this Friday and Saturday. Specifically: After (beer festival organizers) submitt[ed] their festival proposal – which included a description of a LGBT Center booth to the Galaxy Soho management, they were informed that the Center’s representatives would not be allowed access to the venue’s premises, over concerns that LGBT members would not fit with the the site’s architecture ("和我们的建筑 不太吻合").

Jesse Appell Delivered An Impressive Stand-Up Act On Saturday, In Chinese

Jesse Appell standup
We're not ones to fawn over foreigners who speak Chinese good*, but we give plaudits where it's due: check out Jesse Appell performing a stand-up act in Chinese on Saturday as part of the Bookworm's The Humor Section, a monthly comedy event hosted by Des Bishop. (You might remember Appell as the Fulbrighter behind the Youku sensation Laowai Style -- and a recent guest on the Sinica Podcast -- who has since gone on to found the website Laugh Beijing with the goal of "connecting China and other cultures through comedy.")

“Zombie Commuters” Are Now A Thing

Zombie commuters 2
We love that term, wish we would’ve thought of it ourselves. Zombie commuters. Commuters because they’re trying to get somewhere. Zombies because you’d have to be brain-dead to drive into traffic in Beijing. As SCMP puts it: “It’s like a scene out of American television show The Walking Dead, said a microblogger on Sina Weibo, after photos... Read more »

David Beckham Joins Sina Weibo, Is In Beijing, Maybe Still Thinks There’s Hope For Chinese Soccer

David Beckham on Sina Weibo
David Beckham arrived in Beijing yesterday, kicking off his second tour of China as soccer ambassador. (His first trip, in March, saw him hilariously whiff on a free kick.) The positive publicity couldn't have come soon enough, considering the Chinese national team's humiliating 5-1 thrashing at the hands and feet of Thailand's youth team on Saturday. What was one of the first things Becks did? Join Sina Weibo, of course. Check out his first post:

Hail And Serein: The Amazing Storm That Just Swept Through Beijing

Hail and serein
That was quite the collective experience, Beijing. An hour ago, a dam in the sky broke. Rain turned into pellets of ice, the sound of its steady assault only interrupted by thunderclap that set off car alarms. One imagines Qu Yuan sitting somewhere with his feet propped up, enjoying the show. As quickly as the storm came, it departed -- but not before the sun shone out of a hole while the clouds were wrung dry. Now it is quiet, the singing of birds and rustling leaves beginning to fade amid the resumption of human activity, vehicles, construction.