In Beijing, we can see where bands are coming from but, more importantly, we can often see where they’re going. Maybe a small scene can be a little claustrophobic, but it also allows an intimacy and familiarity between musicians and audience members that makes it that much more exciting to see what might happen next and keeps us coming back for more.

Perhaps in anticipation of D22 closing its doors temporarily for a summer hiatus (possibly related to renovations?) the last Zoomin’ Night for a few weeks turned out a formidable crowd and solid performances.

The weather is hot. These three salads are cool, simple, and refreshing.

Product placement is a means to survival for so many filmmakers today, but The Opposite House shorts have done something entirely new—they’ve placed the film literally inside the product.

From the elegantly revamped siheyuan space in an otherwise typically dark and dusty hutong to the restaurant’s prize dish (a sweetened black rice cake molded to look like a coal briquette atop a heavy oven-like platform that is neither particularly tasty (unless you’re wild about pure glutinous textures), nor particularly settling on a cultural level), the restaurant brings light to a kind of tension between “local” traditions and modern dining expectations.