Caochangdi’s Beijing Design Week: A Mess Worth Walking Into

CCD Design Week
The Caochangdi branch of Beijing Design Week is an eclectic mess. The posters have the wrong dates. Designers didn't finish their work on time, so you'll find empty spaces in the place of installations. Volunteers might sell you a button or a program that's supposed to be free. You'll wonder what some exhibits, such as a mishmash of geolocation balloons and a physical "chat room" called "The Real Network," have to do with design. Mix it all together, and you have a wonderful template for the best and worst of Beijing.

Some Asshole Poured Beer On Residence A’s Lead Singer In The Middle Of An Awesome Performance At 2 Kolegas On Saturday

Residence A beer poured on him featured image
The Beijinger's New Festival Showcase at 2 Kolegas on Saturday mostly proved to be your standard gathering of drunken expats, except it produced one hell of a musical highlight: Residence A, a Beijing staple we featured in an Outro earlier this month, giving what I thought was the performance of the night around 8:30 pm. Reasonable music fans will disagree, and I admit I didn't catch every act, but the energy was noticeably different with these guys on stage, to say nothing of musical phrasing and general ability.

What Is A Chinese Orgy Actually Like?

Orgy PS
China has been abuzz over orgies recently, thanks to a set of scandalous pictures that surfaced last week featuring three pairs of swingers. (You can see several of these 120-some NSFW photos here.) Amid speculation (since dispelled) that the men were high-ranking government officials, one of the men, Wang Yu, confessed to being in the... Read more »

Pole Dancers Galore, On Beijing Subway And In Zeta Bar

Zeta Bar Pole Dance 1
Where to begin? Zeta Bar in Hilton Beijing held its fourth pole-dancing competition on Saturday in collaboration with Love Show Studio, the self-proclaimed “Beijing’s No. 1 pole-dancing school.” Local nightlife blogger Jim Boyce informs us the winners were “Ms. Zhenzhen,” as chosen by judges, and “Ms. Vivi,” as chosen by the audience. We’re not sure... Read more »

If You Hold A Ceremony And No One Knows About It, Can You Really Still Call It A “Reader’s” Choice Awards?

CW Awards
While the Beijinger‘s bloated and brassy PR machine pumps its little steam-piston legs to spread the gospel of the Beijing Expat’s Preference of Place to Get Shitfaced, here’s Grandpa City Weekend shuffling onto the front porch with a tin walker missing a wheel, his hoarse voice rasping into the desolate cockcrow, unaware that it’s 5... Read more »

The Only Review Of The Beijinger Awards Party You’re Ever Likely To Read

At the Beijinger awards party 2012
Holding the party in the open air of Sanlitun Soho and suggesting “beachwear” as a dress code was clearly pivotal: the signal for Beijing’s really quite impressively large douchebag population to give full vent to their oeuvre of tics and mores. “Dress code? Dude… I was wearing this Hawaiian shirt with oversized aviators, four days’ beard growth and a jaunty pork-pie hat when I woke up!” We arrive just after four. Upon entering the “gate,” there was a kind, red reminder for all foreigners that there is a crackdown going on for the next 100 years, that undercover police would be among the crowd and that the magazine would not be held responsible for any problems that ensued. Always the best way to get the party started.