Aric Queen will die rich and successful or he'll die successful. Since first coming to Shanghai, China he has helped breath creative life and energy into countless media projects for both independent and international companies. We first stumbled upon his work while pursuing an editorial partnership and cross-promotion plan with ChinesePod. He kept his shows there professional, edgy and honest and as a result managed to both charm and bristle podcast listeners into ever higher subscription numbers. But he's restless. Having finally gone independent after producing shows for IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Nokia, Aric joined City Weekend as Shanghai's nightlife columnist in The Beat. For Aric's confrontational, humorous and candid takes on Shanghai's entertainment and expat scene, editors have taken calls from readers for his phone number to his death sentence. Now he's branched out further and we at City Weekend try to inject as many cityweekend.com.cn (like how we just did that) references into his newest project on CurrentTV, a daily vlog on life here as a ‘lao wai’ leading up to the Olympics. Not afraid to offend as inform, Aric is the columnist that we love to hate but often just end up loving.

Collin Crowell City Weekend Managing Editor