the Beijinger

Tickets are now on sale for the Sanyuan Foods China Open 2010. That’s snooker for the uninitiated. Tickets are priced at RMB 20-2,010 and available by clicking here. To have a look at the schedules and find out when you might see Ronnie O’Sullivan click here.

There’s been more fall-out from the Winter Olympics. Gold medal winner Zhou Yang has come under fire for thanking her parents when everyone knows that you should thank your country above all. To remind her of this was State Sports General Administration deputy director Yu Zaiqing who said “Thanking your parents is not a problem, but should thank the country first. Must put the country first, don’t just thank your parents and that’s it.”

Like foreign devils confronted by imperial guards, we were met with suspicion as we entered. I heard “Do you have a reservation?” The real question seemed to be “Why are you here?” I was wondering myself.

To say the Shanghai-born, American-raised Beijing personality Ai Wan has had an eclectic career would be an understatement. Once named “world most exotic beauty” by American Playboy magazine, Ai Wan opened one of Beijing’s best-known nightclubs, ChinaDoll, back in 2006, and writes a regular column on the capital’s clubbing culture for Modern Weekly. She has also appeared in a raft of films, including Rush Hour and Zhang Ziyi's comedy Sophie’s Revenge, and produced the controversial Chinese documentary Yasukuni, which screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008. On the eve of her hosting of the Beijinger's 2010 Reader Restaurant Awards, we caught up with Ai Wan to find out what she has been up to recently.

Fifty-five years ago this May, yet another aspiring painter arrived in Paris. The French capital was then the mecca for artists from around the world, but 34-year-old Chu Teh-Chun (Zhu Dequn), who is being honored by a major retrospective this month at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), had traveled particularly long and far to reach the city of his dreams. His study of art had begun almost 20 years before at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, and from the first time he looked inside a book of Western painting he knew Paris was where he wanted to be.

With the Bookworm's Literary Festival in full swing, we give the the lowdown on geek chic.

Fatburger has opened up a new front in Beijing's burger wars with their first Mainland China branch in The Grand Summit complex just north of the Kempinski Hotel. We dropped in for lunch today (hat tip to Beijing Boyce for his timely twitter post) and found the place hopping on this, its first official day of business after a slight delay due to some issues with sourcing their beef.  Business was so brisk, in fact, it was hard not to feel a bit sorry for the forlorn O'Brien's counter (owned by the same management) in the corner.

“The Scottish play!” Three Brits corrected me immediately with one voice at an editorial meeting after I dared to speak the name of the upcoming Shakespearean show, Macbeth. As one of William Shakespeare’s darkest and bloodiest plays, Macbeth is a terrifying tragedy swirling with black magic, tortured ghosts, corrupt passion, betrayal and murder. Theatrical superstition says this play is cursed and that saying the name out loud will cause disaster. Supposedly, Shakespeare used a few spells from actual witches as dialogue for the play – which caused great offense and led them to curse the drama.

Sanlitun stalwart Aperitivo has closed its doors to undergo what looks like a major renovation. Presumably the intention is to freshen things up and keep pace within Sanlitun's ever-competitive bar scene. Or maybe they've decided to rip out their popular patio on the basis that in a city where winter now lasts for six months and snow has fallen for the last three Sundays in February/March, having an outdoor terrace as your top attraction just doesn't make sense. Probably the former. Anyway, look out for more on Aperitivo's renovation - posters on the windows say the bar's new look will be unveiled by the end of March.

Steven over at Lost Laowai has provided a list of cool China iPhone apps for those who have made the leap to smart phones. Unfortunately I’m still using an antique Nokia, so I haven’t been able to check out the Lost Laowai suggestions, but a couple of them sound particularly useful for Beijingers.