Small Talk With... A Canuck

Subheading With Canada Day sneaking up on July 1, we thought it was about time to check in with Mountie lover Nancy Xie to see just how one celebrates this red and white holiday.

So where are you from in Canada? Montreal, but I came to Shanghai in February of 2006. Have you found a strong Canadian community in Shanghai? The Canadian Chamber and the Consulate General of Canada in Shanghai put a lot of effort into building a strong community here. I used to work for the Canadian Consulate and have been volunteering for a lot of Canadian events including social mixers, Canada Day celebrations, so I've gotten a firsthand look at the community's development and everyone's hard work. Since you're so ingrained in the Canadian community, pop quiz-how old is Canada this year? We are celebrating our 141st birthday this year, not old at all! Seriously! Well, how are you celebrating Canada day here? The Canadian Chamber organizes a Canada Day event every year featuring games, performances and a barbecue. Have you ever performed? Last year, someone came up with the idea of putting together a Canadian Idol singing competition, and I was one of the competitors. I really look forward to participating in and volunteering for this year's celebration again. If we can't make the official celebration-or are only Canadian in spirit-how can we celebrate? I guess sing "Oh Canada" and get hammered on Moose Head? What's considered official anyway? Is that how you would celebrate back at home? [Laughs] Maybe. Really though, Canada Day is a very popular holiday here and back home and events take many forms and sizes, featuring parades, music, fireworks and more. I personally celebrate with friends by drinking lots of beer and screaming at each other during karaoke. Canada Day is pretty close to the 4th of July, how do the two stack up against each other? Here was how a friend who's also from Montreal put it, "It stacks up well, pride where pride is deserved." It's actually very hard to compare, I mean the Canadians will come out to celebrate their national day, and the Americans will do the same, and they are equally as patriotic. So one last question for you, what exactly is a Canuck? Well, a Canadian. We got that part, but it doesn't have any other meaning? It is also the name of a very good hockey team. We like to think the word is also a synonym for "wholesome goodness."

Everyone Is Talking About... Heading Media Mishap

A report printed a little too quick on the draw lead everyone to believe The Wall was closed when it wasn't

The power of the media is an amazing thing. Still more amazing is that one errant report in a magazine (ours) could lead an entire city (almost) to believe that a certain club (The Wall) was closed. Due to some miscommunication, news that The Wall was closing was passed on to CW. Being from a reliable source associated with the venue, we were quick to get the word out, breaking the story in our Nightlife news section. However, little did we know that this was actually a poorly contrived game of "Telephone" in which the message, passed from person to person, lost its authenticity by the time it reached the end of the line. We'll take the sage advice of our math teacher next time: "Triangulate!"

In short, after the story was picked up by several other entertainment publications including SmartShanghai (sorry, guys), the masses began to believe that in fact The Wall was closed. While we and our counterpart publications like to fancy ourselves the insiders of Shanghai's entertainment scene, we'll cop to the fact that we're not infallible. So we had to ask ourselves, why were the masses so easily convinced that The Wall, open for about four months, had closed? Why still did no one point out this error apart from the venue itself? Maybe due to the revolving door of restaurants and clubs in Shanghai, maybe due to the fact that the venue is located across the river in Pu-the-way-out-there-dong, people were willing to believe that traffic and revenues could have been so low as to cause a premature (if there such a thing in Shanghai) closure.

Well, allow us to set the record straight. The Wall is not closed, it's alive and bumping in the near east. In this tale, the media clearly has pull. And apparently, more than Pudong.

SHANGHAI DIGITS

➜ 1
The number of venues that turned down a CW Readers' Choice Award.
➜ 18
The number of cases of free REEB beer that were drunk on the bus during Get in the Van 2.
➜ 42
The number of toppings to choose from when you "Build Your Burger" at Gourmet Café.
➜ 1,198
The number of members in The Shelter's Facebook group.

A SHANGHAI MINUTE: Jia You!

Begin practicing your Olympic cheer
When seeking inspiration for cheers we normally refer back to our short-lived years as high school volleyball stars; however, China has actually gone so far as to standardize the way you should root for your favorite Olympic hopefuls. Approved by China's apparent national cheerleading authority, the Party Office of Spiritual Civilization Development and Guidance as well as the Ministry of Education, BOCOG and CCTV, the chant "Jia You Aoyun! Jia You Zhongguo!" is as creative as they come, translating as, "Go Olympics! Go China!" They've jazzed it up a bit by throwing in some hand signals to boot. Ready? It's two claps on jia you, arms out and thumbs up for Aoyun, two claps for jia you and fists and arms extended up–pump it!–for the final Zhongguo. Got it? The cheer is intended to support the unified theme of the Olympics, meaning you can co-opt it for your own team if you can't come up with your own rhythmic ditty.