The iconic Peace Hotel in Shanghai opened in the late 1920s (then called the Cathay Hotel) and like Hamilton House and the Metropole Hotel (both on Fuzhou Lu), the Peace Hotel was built by British property tycoon Sir Victor Sassoon, the Donald Trump of 1920s and 1930s Shanghai. It was universally recognised as the best, most prestigious hotel in Shanghai in the 30s and was also for a while – at 10 storeys high – the city’s tallest building.
I first visited the hotel back in 1999. By then of course, it was a shadow of its glorious past – dark, dingy, depressing and in decline. The jazz band members were all in their 70s and you get the feeling they had been there since the 20s.
If you’re not familiar with the building, just look out for the distinctive copper pyramid-shaped roof, which is now green. This was the part of the building that housed Victor Sassoon’s private apartments and dining room back in the day.
The hotel closed in 2007 for a much needed 65m dollar makeover, but I’m happy to report that it finally re-opened just last week. Now two separate hotels – the Fairmont Peace Hotel occupies the north building and as the name suggests, is now a joint venture between Fairmont (which also runs The Savoy in London) and the Chinese Jin Jiang hotel group. The rather oddly named Swatch Art Peace Hotel (I believe due to open soon) occupies the south building on the other side of Nanjing Road, and the two are now run as separate businesses.
I have yet to visit the newly opened hotel, but it’s on my list along with the nearby and also newly opened Peninsula Hotel which houses Sir Elly’s, supposedly one of the best (and most expensive) fine dining restaurants in the city.
Reports to follow, most likely after payday, unless anyone would like to sponsor me to dine there and then and write what’s certain to be a glowing review!
Fairmont Peace Hotel
20 Nanjing Road East
Shanghai,
China
200002
Yes folks, the Oscars are happening RIGHT NOW (it’s still Sunday night in Yankee Doodle Land), hosted this year by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin (both stars of romantic comedy It’s Complicated). In fact, they just started. Who will win the big best picture prize? Will Dingle lookalike George Clooney win best actor for Up In The Air?
I have to admit, I’ve not seen any of the big nominated movies except Avatar – I loved it but doubt it will win any of the big categories – but I’m still going to make a few predictions based on what I’ve heard.
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
Best Movie – The Hurt Locker – Miss Beverly thought it was boring but I’m guessing it’s because she’s a girl :-p
Erm, that’s it. Oh, and I predict Avatar will win best “3D movie that features blue people” of 2009!
What are your predictions / opinions?
UPDATE : Bingo! As predicted, The Hurt Locker wins best picture and best director for Avatar director James Cameron’s ex-wife (and the first ever woman to win) Kathryn Bigelow and Jeff Bridges wins best actor for Crazy Heart. Now I have to pull my socks up and actually see these two movies.
Well actually, no, it has not been banned, but that is how the western media seem to be reporting this news. It appears that the 2D version is being withdrawn, but the 3D version is still going strong. Now riddle me this : if the Chinese were really concerned about the movie’s impact on the Chinese population, why would the only “ban” the 2D version? I haven’t seen it but I am 99% sure the 3D version has the same plotline as the 2D version.
I’m personally not concerned in the least if they are withdrawing the 2D version to make way for some Chinese blockbusters in time for the imminent Chinese New Year festive season. It soulds like common sense to me. But of course, the western press wants its readers to think China is a very restricted country and people have no freedoms whatsoever. And I suppose “Avatar 2D withdrawn due to lack of interest, as everyone prefers to go for the 3D version” doesn’t make for exciting news headlines. Ironic really because it’s the western population that is getting distorted information rather than independent and impartial news. On this occasion anyway.
Chas and Pete (not Dave), two of my English friends living in Beijing are performing a second gig this Friday, 22nd January as part of Muse tribute band Bemused.
So if you find yourself in Beijing this Friday night and are wondering where to go, get yourself down to the Tiny Salt Coffee Bar, have a few beers and enjoy an evening of entertaining alternative rock.
WoAi and Chas at Swing Bar, Sanlitun in Beijing a couple of years ago where the manager kindly allowed us on stage to sing our version of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (I think it was closing time and he wanted a way to empty the bar as quickly as possible!)
If you’ve been to any club in Shanghai in the last few months, it’s impossible not to have heard this tune being played at least once during the evening. But if you don’t have Shazam on your iPhone, you might still not know what the song is called or who it’s by, so I thought I’d help out and post the details here.
It’s called Nobody by South Korean pop sensation girl group (I won’t use the word “band”) Wonder Girls. Apparently they are huge in South Korea and recently opened for The Jonas Brothers in the US as part of their bid to break in to the American market. If you like “manufactured” bands with catchy tunes that are easy on the eyes, this might be for you.
As an aside, we all know YouTube has been blocked in China which is why I’ve linked to Chinese website Youku, but I have just noticed that Youku seems to be blocked outside of China. So now I am in the ludicrous situation of having to link to a Chinese site for Chinese readers AND link to YouTube for those of you outside of China. Arrrghhhh!
So anyway, if you are outside of China, you can find the video clip here on Youtube.
Right, that’s quite enough on the Wonder Girls. For serious music lovers (especially if you’re a fan of Muse – the British band, NOT the club), watch this space for an announcement about the biggest music event of 2010 so far in Beijing next Friday night!
It seems China has gone mad for James Cameron’s latest movie, Avatar. I passed the IMAX in Raffles City on Thursday at around 1am and there were people camped out to buy tickets (the above photo wasn’t taken by me though). I should mention there are quite a few other theatres where you can watch in 3D and I think it’s only here the queues are crazy because it’s IMAX.
It’s interesting because most Chinese people do not pay to go to the movie theatre but instead prefer to watch movies on DVD as discs can be bought for a very modest amount of money. I do wonder if 3D will be a catalyst to change cinema-going culture here, or if it will only capture interest for 3D movies.
China only allows 20 foreign movies a year to be shown here, but 3D movies aren’t included in this quota, presumably because China doesn’t make 3D movies so doesn’t feel threatened by the competition. So I’m looking forward to the day when every movie is made in 3D!
In July I read that MJ had passed away and it’s one of those moments where you read the headline then read it again because you can’t believe what you just read. Well, it happened again on Monday when I read that actress Brittany Murphy had suffered the same fate at the age of 32.
I don’t know how many people reading this will know who she is, but films I’ve seen her in include “Clueless”, “Girl Interupted”, “Sin City”, the excellent “8 Mile” and most recently, “The Ramen Girl”. I’ve also seen Happy Feet but that was a cartoon so I can’t say I’ve “seen” her in that movie.
I won’t speculate on the cause of death, but I do get the feeling it won’t be entirely natural causes, but regardless of cause, it’s tragic for someone so young to pass away and does make me feel fortunate to still be around.
In other news, I had to do a double take at the supermarket last night when I saw two women with a shopping cart by the dairy section eating and drinking stuff directly from their cart. First they had a bunch of bananas which they finished. Then a one litre carton of milk, then some fruit which was washed down with some orange juice. It was very bizarre, not just because of the fact they were eating out of a shopping cart, but the actual combination of stuff they were eating. I wondered if they were trying to consume stuff without paying or perhaps they had had a dispute with the store and decided to just eat stuff up to the value they feel they were owed.The third possibility was that they were one of those people that likes to eat stuff first then take the empty packaging to the checkout to pay for it.
Although I was late for a dinner appointment with Dingle, I had to stick around to see the end of the story. Anyway it turns out they’d already paid for the stuff then pushed the cart back in to the store, found a nice place and proceeded with the picnic in the middle of the store!
Oh, and I still managed to arrive at the restaurant before Dingle!
This Is It is the new documentary movie which was made using video footage from the rehearsals for what was to be Michael Jackson’s comeback concert at the London O2 Arena last July. Michael of course passed away in June just a few weeks before the series of 50 concert dates was about to start, and This Is It therefore provides a glimpse of what could / would have been for the million or so people that would have attended the concerts.
Terence wrote a review on his blog a few days ago giving his take on the movie and reading his review probably had some influence on my decision to go and see it at the movie theatre rather than just wait for the DVD release.
Terence mentioned the movie starts with Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, the very first track from the Thriller album, so no surprise there. What did surprise me was that it wasn’t just a couple of hours of stitched together rehearsal footage. There was also quite a few newly shot video segments which were intended to feature in the background during the concert, and it all looked spectacular, especially the new Thriller video footage which makes the original look a bit low budget and amateurish!
The sets for each song were also breathtaking. I liked the set for The Way You Make Me Feel, which happens to be one of my favourite MJ videos because of his cheeky persistence that eventually pays off as he wins over the initially unresponsive girl.
It’s been widely reported that the main reason for this concert tour was to enable Michael to pay of his huge debts. That might have been true, but it was obvious from the footage that he wasn’t just in it for the money. His attention to each minor detail was a clear indication that he wanted to put on a spectacular show for the fans. Rather than just go through the back catalogue, almost every song had been updated and rearranged.
He had a few prima donna moments, like when the levels in his ear piece was set too high. Rather than simply saying it was too loud, he threw a mini tantrum, saying it was like someone was punching his ear, but director Kenny Ortega handled the situation very delicately and skillfully and I wouldn’t hold it against MJ given the pressure he must have been under. And on several occasions he’d say “I have to conserve my voice”. It was of course rehearsals not the actual concerts, so in a way he had a point.
Many of the supporting performers, singers and dancers, were obviously thrilled to have been selected for the show and it did make me wonder how it must be like to have this once in a lifetime opportunity to work with a legend and then for it to never happen after all the hours of hard work they’d put in.
24 year old lead guitarist Orianthi Panagaris
The dancers were amazing, but then, you have to be to keep up with MJ. But look out also for the incredibly young and talented Greek / Australian female lead guitarist, Orianthi Panagaris. Her Beat It guitar solo is the hottest thing I’ve seen on screen in quite a while and boy can she play guitar. And on the topic of hotties, I had a hard time remembering anything MJ was doing when Judith Hill, the half Japanese, half African-American backing singer was on the screen.
MJ backing singer Judith Hill
I left the theatre after almost 2 hours and it was only when I took a deep breath of the fresh night air that I realised I had pretty much held my breath for the entire movie. It really was just amazing to watch MJ work his magic from beginning to end. You have to remember this was a rehearsal, so in many scenes, he’s not giving 100% and yet it’s STILL stunning. What’s also incredible is that at 50 years old, his dancing was as good as ever. And it was clear he could still carry a tune perfectly as well. So if you’re expecting to see a washed up, has been drug addict desperately trying to earn a few extra dollars, you are in for a big disappointment.
This Is It is going to blow you away. And it’s well worth watching on the big screen while you still can, despite the eye watering 99 rmb ticket price at Shanghai’s UME in Xintiandi. As I write this, in the other window, I’m pre-ordering the DVD on Amazon. It’s a movie I absolutely have to own so I can enjoy it again and again. So, in my humble opinion, if you only see one movie this year in the cinema, make sure this is it!
I lived in London for almost 30 years before moving to Asia, but I never really made the most of having a virtually inexhaustible supply of shows available to me. It’s only now that I live in China that I realise what a wasted opportunity I had and didn’t take advantage of. Well, okay, I DID see Evita, Starlight Express (twice), Phantom (is there any need to give its full title?) to name a few, but overall, I rarely made the effort to go and see shows when I lived here. Then after moving to Shanghai of course, I realised what I was missing, but by then it was too late, although I did catch The Lion King when it toured in Shanghai, and saw Mamma Mia a couple of summers ago on a trip back to London.
I suppose that’s a positive. Moving to Shanghai made me realise what I had when I lived in London. So now that I have a whole month in London, I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. I got tickets to not one, but TWO shows today and I can’t wait to see the stage version of the movie I’ve seen more times than any other movie (Grease).
My theatre-going portfolio is embarrassingly skewed towards musicals, they just seem more fun than plays, but in an effort to make up for that, the second show is actually a play – an adaptation of Truman Capote’s book, Breakfast At Tiffany’s – which of course was made in to a film in 1961 which we discussed only a few days ago on this blog. But the film was set in the 1960s while the original book – and the play I will be seeing – are both set in the 1940s. Oh, and Anna Friel (Beth Jordache from Brookside) plays Holly Golightly, although that isn’t the reason I want to see it. Well, okay, perhaps it is the reason!
I’m really looking forward to seeing both in a few weeks, but first I have to get through a couple of weeks of work.
Mr WoAi senior (left) outside Buckingham Palace, London in full Mad Men costume (and Mrs WoAi senior next to him), circa 1965.
Many of you enjoyed my now and then photo a few days ago, so here’s one of WoAi senior back in the 1960s when young men greased their hair back and dressed in stylish suits and ties most of the time to go shopping or sightseeing, or even for casual events like meeting the queen. I don’t think you’d ever catch my dad in jeans and sneakers back then, although in the photo he’s quite a few years younger than I am now.
For those of you who are pining for the good old days and have yet to discover the joys of AMC’s wonderful TV show Mad Men set in the 1960s, all I can say is, go get season one and two on DVD right now! You’d better hurry too as season 3 just started a couple of weeks ago. Watch it for the clothes, the music or the unpredictable story line, but WATCH IT!
Oh and for existing Mad Men fans, I have season 3 episodes 1 and 2 if you need to get a fix.
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