Past Events in 2005

Please visit our Calendar section for upcoming events

A Talk by Polymath Journalist and Veteran Columnist Christopher Hitchens
7pm, Wednesday 14 December, Shikumen Bistro

About the speaker:
Author of upcoming book "God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion" and contributor to Vanity Fair, Slate, Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times Book Review, British-born journalist, Christopher Hitchens will speak on America's role in the world and how religion shapes foreign policy.

Event details:
When: 7pm, Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Where: Shikumen Bistro, Xintiandi North Block, Huangpi Nan Lu, by Taicang Lu
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP: by Tue, Dec 13to Jane xdancao(at)gmail.com

From Yao Ming to the Next Big Thing: Selling China's Sporting Stars
Brook Larmer, Tor Petersen & Zhang Lixin in Discussion
7pm, Tuesday 13 December, Third Degree

About the topic:
A distinguished panel will look at the making - and marketing - of Chinese sports stars, at how this is becoming a global business, and at the sometimes fraught relationship between commercialism and patriotism.

About the panelists:
Brook Larmer, former Newsweek bureau chief in Shanghai and Hong Kong, is the author of "Operation Yao Ming" (newly published by Penguin: Gotham Books) which looks behind the NBA phenomenon at the role of the Chinese sports machine, and at the pressures on China's new sporting idols.

Tor Petersen is a sports marketing specialist who previously worked for Nike and played a major part in the successful building of that company's brand in China. He is one of the founders of Shanghai-based Zou Marketing, which represents several leading Chinese sports stars including footballer Li Tie.

Zhang Lixin is Vice President of Sports, China at Frontiers Group, a UK-based sports and entertainment marketing company, which promotes sporting events and also represents, among others, the former runner and women's 10,000m world record holder Wang Junxia. Mr Zhang, who studied in Chengdu and Northern Colorado, is also currently Deputy Director of Business Development for the China Sports Industry Association.

Event details:
When: 7pm, Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Where: Third Degree, 7/F, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (on Guangdong Lu)
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP: by Mon, Dec. 12 to Jane xdancao(at)gmail.com

Historic Photography in China
An Illustrated Presentation by Dennis Crow
7pm, Wednesday 30 November, Third Degree

About the topic:
One of the leading experts on historic Chinese photography, Dennis Crow will outline the history of photography in China from its earliest days and discuss the leading photographers of the pre-1949 period and their work in China with a special focus on Shanghai. He will also outline the process of authentication, identification and valuing of Chinese photography; what is on the market today, what to look for and where to buy. The presentation will be supported by a slide show of historic photographs including some rarely seen pictures of old Shanghai.

About the speaker:
Dennis Crow is one of the world's premier dealers and historians of Asian historic photography specializing in China. His dealership has offices in Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong where he regularly holds exhibitions of his collection of old photographs of China and Hong Kong. As a renowned expert on Chinese antiquities Dennis has also been a dealer in Chinese snuff bottles, porcelain and Blackwood furniture. He has lectured widely on the subject of historic Chinese photography and acted as an Appraiser for the Chinese Collection of Historic Photography at the Royal Ontario Museum as well as an Advisor on Chinese antiques to the United States Customs Service at the Port of Los Angeles and lectured on Chinese art at UCLA.

Born in Los Angeles (he was scheduled to be born in Shanghai but his mother wanted him to be born in the USA), Dennis's father worked for the Dollar Line in Shanghai until WWII and again after the war until 1949. His Uncle, Carl Crow, was the famous journalist who also ran an advertising agency in Shanghai for over 20 years between the wars. Dennis grew up in Hong Kong and later studied art history at the Universita丩 di Roma and California State University. He received his Doctorate from London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) while also completing the programme in Chinese art study at Sotheby's London office.

Event details:
When: 7pm, Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Where: Third Degree, 7/F, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (on Guangdong Lu)
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP: by Tue, Nov. 29 to Jane xdancao(at)gmail.com

First Shanghai Screening：A STATE OF MIND
A Documentary on North Korea
7:00 pm, Thursday 10 November, British Council

About the film:
Following on from the 2002 award winning documentary The Game of Their Lives,VeryMuchSo productions was granted permission from the North Korean film authorities to make a second documentary: an observational film following two young gymnasts, 13-year-old Pak Hyon Sun and 11-year-old Kim Song Yun, and their families for over eight months in the lead up to the Mass Games—involving a cast of thousands in a choreographed socialist realism spectacular—the biggest and most elaborate performance on earth.

A STATE OF MIND provides a rare glimpse into what is one of the world’s least known societies. North Korea is sealed off from outside influences. It borders China and Russia to the north, and to the south there is a 4km wide impenetrable border with South Korea. The country follows its own communist ideals, a strict philosophy known as the Juche Idea wrapped around the worship of the Kim dynasty - Kim Il Sung, their Eternal President who died in 1994 but remains Head of State, and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il, known as the General.

The crew began filming in February 2003 with unique access to the two families’ day to day life from home, at work in the city and countryside—a remarkable insight into a part of North Korean society never before allowed. As their Korean minder explained “you have to understand, no one has ever been allowed to see, let alone film, what you are witnessing.”

Western eyes, for the very first time, have a unique insight into North Korean society, its people, its way of life, and its total devotion to their leader and ruler, Kim Jong Il.

The film is directed by Daniel Gordonand produced by VeryMuchSo Productions in association with Passion Pictures, BBC, ARTE and WNET. Associate producer Nicholas Bonner will introduce the screening.

Event details:
When: Thursday, November 10, 7pm, 2005
Where: British Council, 1 Floor Pidemco Tower, 318 Fuzhou Lu
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP: by Wed, Nov. 9 to Jane xdancao(at)gmail.com

Buying In – The Sexy Modern Girl Icon in Old Shanghai
Monday, September 19, 7pm, Third Degree

About the topic:
This talk is called "Buying In" and it analyzes the formation and importance of "the sexy modern girl icon" in Shanghai print media in the inter-war years. By sexy modern girl icon the speaker means the identifiable and flashy girl image that came, by the early thirties, to saturate commodity ads in journals of opinion, newspapers, the mosquito press and broadsheets. Big red lips, uplifted bosom, form-hugging qipao and high-heeled shoes, the cute and sexy modern girl icon sold everything from menstrual pads and hams to fertilizer and vanishing creams. The point of this presentation is to establish the way that the icon came into circulation. More importantly, the talk and its power point presentation ask what happens when an image this potent saturates the visual field. A longer version of "Buying In" is under press review; it will appear in a published volume entitled “The Modern Girl Around the World”.

Our speaker:
After receiving her doctorate in modern Chinese history, Tani E Barlow joined the History Department at the University of Missouri at Columbia , where she taught from 1985 until 1991. Journalism School undergraduates and military cadets were her core undergrad constituency. Imagine her delight when she turned on Seattle network TV a couple of years ago and saw a former student reading the script. Currently Barlow teaches modern Chinese history at the University of Washington, Seattle where she also edits the journal positions: East Asia cultures critique and periodically directs the Project for Critical Asian Studies at the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Her most recent book is “The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism” (Duke University Press, 2004). The Modern Girl projects that she has co-founded include the Modern Girl Around the World group at the University of Washington, composed of specialists working on South Africa, Germany, India, China and the United States, and the Modern Girl and Colonial Modernity in East Asia, headquartered at the Institute for Gender Studies at Ochanomizu University and composed of scholars located in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, China and the United States. Each group is researching questions of gender and consumption in the inter-war years. Besides her modern girl work Barlow has embarked on a history of Sociology in China over the inter-war years.

Event details:
When: Monday, September 19, 7pm, 2005
Where: Third Degree, 7/F, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (on Guangdong Lu)
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP:by Sunday, Sep 18 th, to Elyn elyngaohang(at)gmail.com

FCC Journalist Members only: Lunch with the Consul General of Switzerland
Monday, September 19, 7pm, Third Degree

We cordially invite FCC journalists to a luncheon with Hans J. Roth, Consul General of Switzerland, on Friday, September 2nd, 2005 between 11:45 am and 2:00 pm. Starting with a cocktail, the Consul General will present a survey recently conducted by the consulate regarding pre-conditions for economic success in China. Then we have the opportunity for a discussion of the results and other questions related to Swiss investment in China during lunch.

Event details:
When: Friday, September 2nd, 11:45-2:00 pm, 2005
Where: Residence of the Swiss CG Hillcas Villa, House K, Hong Mei Lu No. 2999
RSVP:by Weds, August 30st, to Elyn elyngaohang(at)gmail.com

"The Emperor's Bones": Warlord China and Family History
Thursday, September 1, 7pm, Third Degree

About the topic:
Published by Hodder and Stoughton, "The Emperor's Bones" is set in the 1920s when China was embroiled in bloody civil wars between warlords, communists and nationalists. The new novel contains the same mix of high adventure and low romance, passion, intrigue, political treachery and espionage, all characterised by meticulous historical research and knowledge based on 20 years living in China, that made his first novel a bestseller around the world.

Its story is also partly drawn from Adam's own family history in China. He is the fourth generation to be living and working in North China. His forbears were railwaymen and medical missionaries who came to Manchuria in the 1890s. Both his grandmother and mother were born in China, and some of the events in "The Emperor's Bones" are based on experiences of his grandmother living in Tientsin (Tianjin) in the 1920s. In his talk this evening, illustrated by more than sixty contemporary photographs, Adam will outline the main historical and political events that served as the backdrop of his novel, and describe how his own family story influenced his writing.

Adam Williams, besides being an author of historical novels, is also the Chief Representative of Jardine Matheson in China.

Event details:
When: Thursday, September 1, 7pm, 2005
Where: Third Degree, 7/F, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (on Guangdong Lu)
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP:by Tues, Aug 30, to Elyn elyngaohang(at)gmail.com

State of Play-Restaurant Business – A Panel Discussion by Top Restaurateurs in Shanghai
Sunday, August 28, 4~6 pm, The Glamour Bar

The Restaurant Business in Shanghai:
Ten years ago, dining choices in Shanghai were essentially binary: mediocre, generic western food in international hotels or inexpensive, hit-or-miss Chinese food in low-rent canteens.

Look at the state of play today: we've got more types of food, more levels of quality – more options than most of us know what to do with. A panel of some of the people who helped shape Shanghai 's food revolution discuss their visions, their experiences and their predictions for the future of dining in Shanghai . Enthusiastic engagement from the audience is encouraged!

Panelists:
Michelle Liu, Wine & Dine magazine. Where do Chinese “foodies“ learn about global food trends, or wine pairing with Asian cuisines? With the publication of Wine & Dine magazine's Chinese first edition this summer, Chinese gourmands are enjoying the first top-quality food magazine written especially for them. And Michelle Liu is the de facto arbiter of what's in and what's out, food-wise, on the mainland.

Michelle Garnaut, M on the Bund. When M on the Bund opened in 1999, it was the first international-level restaurant in Shanghai located independent of a global hotel. And what a location it still is! Visionary restauranteuse Michelle Garnaut talks about the old days and about what's yet to come in Shanghai 's food scene.

Choon, Simply Thai. The inspiration for Simply Thai was the craving of its founder for the spicy tastes of southeast Asia – then almost unknown on the mainland. Singaporean Choon Guo started with a restaurant, and followed with a lifestyle empire that has had a profound impact on the way Shanghai people live.

Event details:
When: Sunday, August 28, 4~6 pm, 2005
Where: The Glamour Bar, M on the Bund, 7/F, 20 Guangdong Lu, Cr Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, the Bund
Price: RMB 50 (includes one drink)
RSVP:by Friday, Aug 26 th, to Elyn elyngaohang(at)gmail.com

Members Only: Pamper Yourself at Diva Life
Announcing the launch event for an exclusive new discount for FCC members
Satur day August 20, 2~ 4 PM, Garden House

We are kicking off a new benefit for FCC members at Diva Life, a lounge-style nail salon with locations in two historic buildings in Shanghai. Diva Life offers manicures, pedicures and other treatments. Find out more at www.mydivalife.com

We will hold an afternoon FCC event for members to try out the full menu of Diva Life treatments at discount rates, exclusively available on Saturday just for this event. Beverages and cookies will be served. Men and women are welcome!

FCC Discount details

30% off Mondays to Thursdays, 15% off all other times, 20% off "All-You-Can –Nail" Program.

Diva Life's two branches

Garden House
266 Ruijin 2nd Road , Shanghai , China
Booking Hotline: (021) 5465-7291
Fuxing Park
120 Nanchang Road , Shanghai , China
Booking Hotline: (021)5383-8957

Event details:
When: Satur day August 20, 2~ 4 PM, 2005
Where: Garden House, 266 Ruijin 2nd Road 5465-7291
RSVP:by Thursday, Aug 18, to Elyn Gao Hang elyngaohang(at)gmail.com

FCC Summer Special: Barbeque and Membership Drive!
Tuesday, July 26th, 7pm, Backyard Cafe

Dear members and friends, we're excited to invite you to a special summer event: All-you-can eat barbeque at Backyard Cafe! Its time to enjoy a hot kebab and perhaps a cool beer in the summer heat with old and new members.

Its also a special FCC sign-up event, so for anyone who has been considering joining the FCC now is the time--m embership fees are pro-rated for the second half of the year. W e'll also be giving out some goodies: all new folks signing up will get one of our stylin' FCC t-shirts. (If possible please let Elyn know in advance what size and color you would like: white/black/red.) And c urrent members will get a free FCC notebook for signing up a friend! We'll also have an easy on-the-spot sign up process.

For those who would like to join, please remember to bring along money for dues and a passport-sized photo. We'll have membership forms available. For further joining details and fees please refer to the following link on FCC website http://www.fccsh.org/membership /join.asp or feel free to email Elyn at elyngaohang@gmail.com directly beforehand with any questions.

Members and those joining at the event will enjoy a great discount for the BBQ buffet dinner. We'll also be announcing a new benefit for members to enjoy discounted meals all year at our host Backyard Cafe. Hope to see you there!

Event details:
When: Tuesday, July 26, 7pm, 2005
Where: Backyard Cafe, 8~10 Jianguo Zhong Lu, inside Bridge 8 (near Sinan Lu)
Price: FCC Members 150; Non-Members RMB 180 (for all you can eat and drink)
RSVP:by Monday, Jul 25 th, to Elyn Gao Hang elyngaohang(at)gmail.com

WMD – Weapons of Mass Deception
The Film that Takes You inside the Iraq Media War You Never Saw
Tuesday, July 19th, 7pm, British Council

About the film:
There were two wars going on in Iraq - one was fought with armies of soldiers, bombs and a fearsome military force. The other was fought alongside it with cameras, satellites, armies of journalists and propaganda techniques. One war was rationalized as an effort to find and disarm WMDs - Weapons of Mass Destruction; the other was carried out by even more powerful WMDs, Weapons of Mass Deception.

The TV networks in America considered their non-stop coverage their finest hour, pointing to the use of embedded journalists and new technologies that permitted viewers to see a war up close for the first time. But different countries saw different wars. Why?

For those of us watching the coverage, war was more of a spectacle, an around the clock global media marathon, pitting media outlets against each other in ways that distorted truth and raised as many questions about the methods of TV news, as it did the armed intervention it was covering-and it some cases-promoting.

WMD, a 100 minute non-fiction film, explores this story with the findings of a gutsy, media insider-turned-outsider, former network journalist, Danny Schechter, who is one of America 's most prolific media critics. Schechter says he "self-embedded" himself in his living room to monitor media coverage, by fastidiously tracking the TV coverage on a daily basis. He wrote thousands of words daily about the coverage for Mediachannel.org, the world's largest online media issues network, and then collected his columns, blogs and articles in a recently published book, EMBEDDED: Weapons of Mass Deception (Prometheus Books) . He has continued his one-man investigation with WMD, a two-hour indie non-fiction film that asks the questions that his media colleagues refused to confront before, during and after the war. Featuring footage from inside Iraq , and inside the media, WMD tracks the media war through February 2004.

A Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University , and radio news director turned CNN and Emmy Award winning ABC News Producer, Schechter wears several hats at the same time. He is now an award-winning independent investigative journalist and filmmaker as well as an outspoken author. Danny Schechter is not afraid to take on his own industry. WMD busts through so-called "objective reporting" to challenge media complicity with the government and its cooperation in presenting the Iraq War the way it did. This is a hard-hitting, yet personal film that looks at the television war and asks why the American audience lapped it up and how the Pentagon helped shape media coverage.

About the filmmaker:
Danny Schechter is a television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes and speaks about media issues. He is the author of "Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception: How the Media Failed to Cover the Iraq War" (Prometheus Books, October 2003); "Media Wars: News At A Time of Terror (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003); "The More You Watch, The Less You Know" (Seven Stories Press) and "News Dissector: Passions, Pieces and Polemics" (Akashic) Books and Electron Press). He is the executive editor of MediaChannel.org, the world's largest online media issues network, and recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists' 2001 Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism.

He has produced and directed many TV specials and documentary films, including "Counting on Democracy" about the electoral fiasco in Florida narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; the post 9-11 film We Are Family" (2002) shown at the Sundance Film Festival; "Nkosi: A Voice of Africa's AIDS Orphans" (2001) narrated by Danny Glover; "A Hero for All: Nelson Mandela's Farewell" (l999); "Beyond Life: Timothy Leary Lives" (1997); "Sowing Seeds/Reaping Peace: The World of Seeds of Peace" (1996); "Prisoners of Hope: Reunion on Robben Island" (1995, co-directed by Barbara Kopple); "Countdown to Freedom: Ten Days that Changed South Africa" (1994), narrated by James Earl Jones and Alfre Woodard; "Sarajevo Ground Zero" (1993); "The Living Canvas" (1992), narrated by Billy Dee Williams; "Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy" (1992, co-directed by Marc Levin and Barbara Kopple); "Give Peace a Chance" (1991); "Mandela in America" (1990); "The Making of Sun City" (1987); and "Student Power" (1968).

Schechter is co-founder and executive producer of Globalvision, a New York-based television and film production company now in its 16th year. He founded and exec-produced the series "South Africa Now" and co-produced "Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television. He has specialized in investigative reporting and producing programming about the interface between human rights, journalism, popular music and society. His career began as the "News Dissector" at Boston 's leading rock station, WBCN. Later, Schechter was a producer for ABC NEWS 20/20. He produced 50 segments for ABC and won two national Emmys and was nominated or two others.

A Cornell University graduate, he received his Master's degree from the London School of Economics, and an honorary doctorate from Fitchburg College . He was a Neiman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard, where he also taught in 1969. After college, he was a full time civil rights worker and then communications director of the Northern Student Movement, and worked as a community organizer in a Saul Alinsky-style War on Poverty program. Then, moving from the streets to the suites, Schechter served as an assistant to the Mayor of Detroit in 1966 on a Ford Foundation grant.

Schechter joined the start-up staff at CNN as a producer based in Atlanta . He then moved to ABC as a producer for 20/20. Schechter has reported from 49 countries and lectured at many schools and universities. He was an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University . Schechter's writing has appeared in leading newspapers and magazines including the The Nation, Newsday, Boston Globe, Columbia Journalism Review, Media Studies Journal, Detroit Free Press, Village Voice, Tikkun, Z, and many others. Danny Schechter can be reached at dissector@mediachannel.org

Event details:
When: Tuesday, July 19th, 7pm, 2005
Where: British Council, Pidemco Tower, 318 Fuzhou Lu
Price: FCC Members free; Non-Members RMB 50
RSVP:by Friday, July 15 th, to Elyn Gao Hang elyn(at)fccsh.org