Author: Pun Ngai

If you’ve ever stared at the “Made in China” stamp on your gadgets and wondered who actually makes them, Pun Ngai has the answer. Ngai, now an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, spent eight months in a Shenzhen electronics factory ... Read more »

Movies

The Forbidden Kingdom

Thinly realized, yet entertaining and funny, it’s the story of an American kid who, by way of a generic Hollywood premise, winds up in a kind of mythical Buddhist/Shaolin heaven where he has to help Jackie Chan save Sun Wukong (a blond Jet Li ... Read more »

FOR TRAVELERSYouTube to Go

The Archos 605 media player not only comes with 160 gigs to store all your movies and music, but also built-in Wi-Fi capabilities so you can stream media straight off the internet. With a four inch screen and a weight of 9.17 ounces, you ... Read more »

Author: Jiang Rong

Penned by Lu Jiamin under the pseudonym Jiang Rong, Wolf Totem is a semi-autobiographical work about the experiences of a bookish Beijing student during an 11-year sojourn in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution. At times more a series of ethnological meditations than a novel, it caused ... Read more »

Band: Honey Gun

Honey Gun’s latest release on Pilot Records is a precise take on Middle American nu-metal. How did a contingent of disaffected suburban rock fans somehow crop up in the heart of the Chinese capital? Some bands believe influences are to be subtly integrated and some feel ... Read more »

MOVIESIn Bruges

After a hit gone wrong, Irish hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) are ordered to lay-low and play tourist in a sleepy Flemish town. With Gleeson's mature calm offset by Farrell's youthful apathy, what we have is an intriguing, unpredictable, crime comedy.

The Hammer

The ... Read more »

The name may sound tediously academic, but this film blog is anything but. Launched in March by a group of guys who spend way too much time digging the Chinese cinema scene, the Journal reviews films, previews projects and generally rounds up the gossip from an informed perspective. Read more »

FOR IPOD FANSSecond Skin

What’s cooler than a video iPod? One wrapped in a Van Gogh painting. That’s just one of the cool designs for the new iPod GelaSkin. Aside from being artsy, they do wonders protecting your iPod and the screen from nasty scratches. US$20 ... Read more »

Band: Reflector

From humble beginnings 10 years ago playing warehouse gigs and passing out self-pressed demos, Reflector has earned its place in China’s punk rock elite. Back in 1997, these three self-proclaimed “Wudaokou kids,” Tian Jianhua (bass and vocals), Li Peng (guitar and vocals) and Ye Jingying (drums), formed ... Read more »

Band : Caffe-In

Led by spark plug front woman, Sayu, Caffe-In has pulled off what many bands attempt but rarely achieve: a studio album which captures all the energy of the live performance. Though the album does slip in some saccharine moments, when Caffe-In strays from their SoCal ska/punk roots ... Read more »

MOVIES

21

A group of MIT math geniuses who take Vegas for millions? Cool stuff. A group of MIT students who dress badly in their attempt to be cool? Nerd stuff. Kevin Spacey’s presence as the prof who pushes them into the scam seals this one as bad, bad ... Read more »

FOR JAMES BOND

Ultra Mobile

When you are planning your next million dollar diamond heist, you’re going to need this micro PC from Sony. All of five inches wide, this gadget packs in the computing power. It features keyboard and stylus as well as fingerprint sensors which trigger passwords ... Read more »

Artist: Sulumi

Novel recording technique has its place in the arc of electronic dance music; there are only so many rhythmic variations on a digitally produced 4x4 beat that a musician can concoct. From Herbert's “Bodily Functions,” which used recordings of various, yes, bodily functions to form beats and ... Read more »

Author: Ian Pogson

“What I knew about China I could have been written on a postage stamp. Now I may need two,” Pogson writes in the introduction to his diary of a year living in Shanghai as a engineer at a major Chinese auto group. He's not lying. The ... Read more »

FOR WINOS

I, Robotb

This is exactly what dot.com millionaires need: a robot sommelier. Developed by NEC System Technologies the wine bot identifies wines and ascertains taste via infrared rays and thus can recommend which dishes pair best with the wine. The Guinness Book of World Records logged the ... Read more »

Author: Oliver August

If you want to write a China book, you have to find an angle. It's no longer acceptable to surmise “I was there and this is what I saw” will be enough. August, who was the China correspondent for the London Times from 1999-2005, has wrapped ... Read more »

Author: Ying Zhu

Expats don't watch much TV in China and that's unfortunate, because, according to Ying Zhu's latest book, it's the forefront of domestic political discourse. Ying Zhu, an assistant professor at CUNY-Staten Island, marshals her evidence from the period dramas that dominate the airwaves ... Read more »

FOR DRIVERS

Clip Phone

An alternative to rubber banding your mobile phone to your head, this clever little gadget hooks easily over your ear and functions as a transponder to your mobile. Equipped with Bluetooth functionality, you can make and answer calls (voice dialing!) and participate in three way calling ... Read more »

Author: Neville Mars

Trained in Delft, the Netherlands, Neville Mars started his career working for the famed architectural outfit OMA in Rotterdam. Since then, his work on a wide range of international projects has won widespread acclaim. Since 2004 he has been the creative director of the Dynamic City Foundation ... Read more »

Band: Venice Is Sinking

The American south is one of the most stigmatized places on Earth. What comes to mind? Slavery, Katrina, poverty, conservative gun-toting rednecks, thinly realized Black dance-off movies, the list is endless. Yet there's another side to the South°™sleepy and laid-back°™captured perfectly in the ... Read more »

For the Home

Hobby Heaven

We don't even own a printer, but the nefarious mischief we could get up to with this 3D printer, which was voted "Best of What's New in 2007" by Popular Science magazine, begs us to consider a purchase. With it in hand we ... Read more »

Book: MAD Dinner | ★★★★

Author: Ma Yansong

Back in 2006 Ma Yansong rocked China’s artistic community by becoming the country’s first ever architect to win an overseas design competition—his stunningly curvaceous Absolute Tower in Ontario, Canada, was received to widespread critical acclaim, and all apartments were snapped up ... Read more »

When Sparks Fly

Just so we can’t be accused of male pandering, we present the latest in fashionable security tasers. The Taser C2 comes in a range of colors (leopard-print featured below) and accessories. Aside from the incapacitating shock it discharges up to 15 feet, the Taser C2 boasts ... Read more »