Best new eat and drink destination: Sinan Mansions
This faux-historic Xintiandi look-alike is the latest nightlife spot in the French Concession.
An impressive proportion of Shanghai’s restaurateurs are here, from Kelley Lee’s The Alchemist and The Boxing Cat to Eduardo Vargas’ ChiCha pisco bar. Plus, David Laris’ four-in-one building housing his takeaway brand The Funky Chicken downstairs, and Yucca, The Fat Olive and his exclusive private chef’s table 12 Chairs on the upper levels.
For Chinese cuisine, Shanghai veteran chain restaurant Xiao Nanguo has launched new upscale restaurant Maison de le’Hui.
Best new creatives: Shuangfei Art Collective
This Hangzhou-based group made their mark on the Shanghai scene this year, with multiple exhibitions at the Cool Docks and at Get It Louder’s Sharism event.
Made up of six graduates of the prestigious China Academy of Art, Shuangfei specializes in subversive performance art, parody videos and pranks. Think: pretending to rob a bank. Although they’re based in Hangzhou -- which is now a mere bullet train ride away -- they still get our vote for Shanghai creatives of the year.
“In my opinion, there are no emerging Shanghainese artists as strong as Shuangfei,” says Leo Xu, associate director of Shanghai's James Cohan Gallery.
- More on CNNGo: "Best places to get Hangbang cai in Hangzhou"
Worst sports achievement: Shanghai football scandal
China’s football scandal hit Shanghai worse than most cities: two of our football heroes, the 37-year-old Shen Si and 34-year-old Qi Hong, were taken in by police in October to “give assistance” in the investigation of Chinese football corruption.
Although no official announcement has been made so far about the two players’ current situation, many suspect that the two have been arrested.
The investigation started with allegations of game-fixing in a 2003 match between Shanghai Guoji and Tianjin Taida.
Oriental Morning Post reports that Tianjin Taida spent RMB 12 million to buy off Shen and Qi, the two most important players in Shanghai Guoji at the time.
Best fast food revival: America’s finest open in Shanghai
For years, the image of U.S. fast food in Shanghai has been defined by McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC. This year, we finally got some good greasy grub representation: a big fat welcome to Krispy Kreme and Carl’s Jr. Sure, these greasy donuts and burgers are far from gourmet and perhaps it’s a dubious honor, but it’s top of the lot for fast food, U.S.-style.
Best Chinese fashion icon: Fan Bingbing
Appearing in no less than seven feature films in 2010, this Mandopop singer and starlet has been ubiquitous on the silver screen, in cosmetics ads and on the red carpet.
“Off the red carpet, she looks impeccably chic, incorporating her personal style into the current season’s fashion trends,” says Shanghai style guru Tiffany Wu, co-founder of local boutique Heirloom Handbags what makes Fan a true fashion icon. “On screen, her dainty pale figure portrays a healthy body image, and most importantly, confidence.”
- More on CNNGo: Interview with Fan Bingbing
Worst stage style: Shang Wenjie, aka the Chinese Lady Gaga
The phrase “Oh My Lady Gaga” might have taken Chinese Internet chat rooms by storm, but 2010 was also the year of local imitations of the singer and her fabulous style.
Regarded as the Chinese Lady Gaga, 28-year-old Shanghainese singer Laura Shang (尚雯婕) was at the head of the pack as the winner of a singing talent show “Super Girl” in 2006, but this year she announced her temporary withdrawal from the entertainment industry.
It's widely assumed by the press that her hiatus is due to her unsuccessful PR strategy, including her controversial Lady Gaga-inspired stage style.
The Fudan University graduate initially started her career with a girl-next-door image, doing a 180-degree image shift into a shocking and alternative pop idol in more recent appearances.
“Styling is a very good stepping stone to success. My company collects the statistics for me. After my image shift, the outside world has shown 200 percent, or even 300 percent, more interest in me,” Shang told the press.
Shang’s more exaggerated outfits include a metallic hat and costume with a texture somewhere between a frog’s skin and a plastic armor.
Best side-effect of the 2010 Expo: Spacious, clean taxis
Roughly seven percent of Shanghai’s taxis are now of the big pimpin’ Volkswagen Touran sedan variety, known colloquially as “Expo Taxis.” The easily excitable among us tend to get a bit light-headed when they manage to flag down one of these bad boys.
Lest you think that these vehicles are pretty much the same as “regular” taxis, we’d like to remind you that they are leading the PVC seating revolution.
- More on CNNGo: Full coverage of the Shanghai 2010 Expo
Worst celebrity scandal: Zhou Libo's weibo incident
Fans of Shanghainese stand up Comedian Zhou Libo were disappointed in the star in 2010 when he deviated from his signature clean routine, posting insulting comments on his weibo account. Although commenting on a range of people and issues, some of the most offensive included saying Chinese netizens are "sh*t," accusing the Internet of being "a public toliet" and calling the soul of Fang Zhouzi, who came into the spotlight in 2010 for helping expose high-level academic misconduct in China, "as abnormal as his voice."
Zhou reportedly lost over 200,000 followers over his comments.
Best demonstration of Shanghai morale: The flower power on Jiaozhou Lu after the fire
Banquets, baskets and wreaths. Meters of flowers covered Jiaozhou Lu where over 50 victims died in a building fire on November 15.
White and yellow chrysanthemum, sent by thousands of people across the city, attested to the tragedy that happened there and the city's united, courageous response to it.
Best fashion trend: Boyish bowl cuts for girls
Some of the most fashionable Shanghai ladies we know have been rockin’ the bowl-cut in 2010, either bleached blonde or au naturel. It takes panache to pull off a haircut commonly associated with geeky eight-year-old boys, but fortunately the women of Shanghai have got that swagger in spades.
Best celebrity gossip: Wang Xiaofei and Barbie Hsu’s flash marriage
Barbie Hsu exemplifies the Chinese saying, “It's more important to marry well than for a marriage to work well."
This year the Taiwanese actress announced her marriage to Wang Xiaofei, director of restaurant group South Beauty, who controls a reported RMB 300 million fortune.
Thirty-four-year-old Hsu and 29-year-old Wang met on Taiwanese actress An Yixuan’s birthday party in late September and quickly fell in love.
Forty-nine days later Hsu posted their marriage registration photo on her weibo.
This flash marriage between the rich and the beautiful has secured Barbie Hsu, Wang Xiaofei and Wang’s mother Zhang Lan a headlining place on the entertainment press throughout mainland China and Taiwan for the past two months.
Although some suspected that the marriage was a stepping stone for South Beauty to enter the Taiwanese market, the group’s founder Zhang Lan denied the rumor in an exclusive interview with Taiwan’s Now News. She told the reporter that “South Beauty doesn’t need promotion in Taiwan because it’s already well known.”
- More on CNNGo: Helen He explains why there's nothing wrong with Chinese celebrities marrying for money
Best addition to the grooming scene: Strip: Ministry of Waxing
After opening their first Shanghai location in late 2009, this world-class waxing chain continued its expansion throughout our fair city this year.
To date, there are four Strip locations in Shanghai, staffed by battalions of smiley Striperellas armed with Lavender and Wild Berry Chocolate wax. Waging war on follicles is never going to be a day in the park, but Strip makes it almost pleasant. No small feat.
Worst food trend: Street food's disappearance
In 2010 we lost the wild and wonderful adventurous eats of Wujiang Lu’s street food market. We lost the breakfast street food of Tianping Lu.
We lost most of the street food in the Dongjiadu area, under the crane of development for a new mall. Much of the street food has been winnowed along with disappeared alleyways near the Old City. We mourn the loss of so much delicious, traditional street food and the livelihoods of all those skilled cooks who prepared it.
Best place we loved that's now overrun with tourists: Taikang Lu
Although once a quiet place to wander, shop and munch the day away, Taikang Lu is now overrun with people, almost to the levels of the crowded Nanjing Xi/Dong Lu.
When you stepped into this small street today, chances are that over 90 percent of the people you'll bump into are tourists. As the lane continues to value expansion over quality stores, the once chic and unique Taikang Lu is losing its appeal to Shanghaining.
- More on CNNGo: Master Taikang Lu
Best local TV show: 'China's Got Talent'
Since its launch on July 25, 2010, the Shanghai-based "China’s Got Talent" -- the newest member of the Got Talent franchise -- has been making waves across China for its contestants as well is its celebrity panel of judges. The top of the list? Winner Liu Wei, a young armless pianist, who plays with his feet. With a first year of hugely talented contestants and big-name celebrity judges, the 2011 season will have major rating to fill.
Best new fashion face: Ming Xi
Runway model Xi Mengyao is the biggest fashion icon to come out of Shanghai since model Du Juan.
Better known as Ming Xi to international audiences, the 21-year-old Shanghai native first caught people’s attention through a Shanghai-based talent show “Angel” in 2009.
The past September, Xi landed the cover of Vogue China’s fifth anniversary issue and successfully broke into the North American market during New York fashion week when she walked for designers including Alexander Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Burberry and Lanvin.
When Ming Xi told Italian Vogue in an interview, “I believe that will be one day I do [modeling] perfectly,” you know you’re looking at the face of the next Chinese super model.
Worst line: China Pavilion
Under the "giant red Mahjong table" -- also known as the China Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo -- was the best place to verify just how many people China has, the area consistently hosting the longest lines at the Expo.
Lining up here was a feat of indurence, with many people waiting over six hours to get in -- and that's with reservations.
For those who couldn't stand the wait, their patience was rewarded as the China Pavilion annouced it would stay open an addiitonal six months post-Expo.
Best film about Shanghai: Jia Zhangke's 'I Wish I Knew'
"I Wish I Knew" by China's young master film director Jiang Zhangke is a documentary-film hybrid featuring Shanghai's tumultuous 20th-century history through the accounts of 18 interviewees who each have a deep connection with the city.
"I particularly hope this film could offer the background color to Shanghai, not the strange part," says Jia of the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment