Infamous Tea & Honey show
Vice and filth from China’s underbelly – that’s what Shanghai-based indie publishing house HAL Publishing say their second volume of stories, Middle Kingdom Underground: 13 Short Stories from the People's Republic of, is all about. And as you would expect from scallywags spreading sewage like that around, they’re putting on a bloody big party to announce its arrival.
As with the launch of first book Party like it's 1984 last year, the bash will be at the River South Art Center, and once again will be one of their Slamhai! events, which sees Shanghai’s greatest poets pitted against each other using traditional slam methods, mashed together with HAL’s own unique style. Last year’s was 100 percent, pure uncut awesomeness.
As for the book, we got our grubby little hands on an advance copy. Expect dark tales of heroin addicts setting up magic mushroom growing factories in the remote mountains of Yunnan, hurried hand jobs through open hotel windows and overnight geniuses taking part in all-night, animalistic orgies. The perfect Christmas gift for your Gran, in other words.
The book launch is part of the River South Arts Festival, which runs Dec 1-4. The Thursday will see singer-songwriter, visual artist and fashion designer Redic getting all avant garde on our asses. Not only will he be performing some soulful tunes, he’ll also be unleashing his Shanghai Thrones on an unsuspecting world, “12 sculptural chairs reborn, reclaimed and rising up from the debris of the metropolis.”
Friday night sees The Illumin8tors perform Solar/Lunar, which is being touted as Shanghai’s first rock opera, a claim we don’t doubt is a rightful one; Chinese culture meets capoeira and a whole lot of other mentalism going on there. Sounds a veritable hoot. To cap it all off Sunday sees everyone unwind at an Art Brunch, which involves food, wine and an open mike. Hit it.
RIVER SOUTH ARTS FESTIVAL
Thu Dec 1 from 6pm, Redic Shanghai Thrones opening exhibition, no cover. Fri Dec 2 from 8pm, Solar/Lunar by the Illumin8tors, RMB80. Sat Dec 3 from 7.30pm, HAL Publishing Book Launch, RMB100 with book. Sun Dec 4 from 2pm, Art Brunch, RMB120. All at the River South Art Center, 1247 Nan Suzhou Lu, by Xinzha Lu 南苏州路1247号, 近新闸路和乌镇路, nearest Metro Xinzha Lu on Line 1