An Edinburgh Fringe in China? Sounds ambitious for a whole lot of reasons, but that’s what Split Work are hoping to do with the JUE Festival, an extended lineup of artists, performances, screenings and exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai.

The Belcea Quartet burst onto the musical scene in 1999 after winning first prize at two international string quartet competitions in Osaka and Bordeaux. They are set to give their first-ever concert in China this Sunday (March 6). On the program are three favorites of musicians and listeners alike: Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 6; Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3; and Schubert’s Death and Maiden.

This is it: the marquee event of the XXI Winter Olympic Games has its marquee matchup on the final day of competition. (With all due respect to the men’s 50 km cross-country skiing race, we’re not talking about that). By all indications, Canada vs. USA for men’s hockey gold at 12:15 p.m. Vancouver time, 4:15 a.m. (Monday morning) Beijing, will overshadow the closing ceremony. So why is this match important and where can we catch the action in Beijing?

For all this city’s culture and ability to inspire, a good, original theatrical performance is hard to find for Beijing’s expats. Even rarer is that good, original, free show, the kind spawned out of talent, passion and sacrifice in the name of art. How lucky, then, that the ShiFen (10-Minute) Festival is upon us. This Saturday, February 6, actors, artists and performers – most of them “professional” in the sense that they have on-stage experience – will unite for two-and-a-half hours at Penghao Theater for a menagerie of plays, dance, music, films and improv, and maybe even a magic show.

Humankind’s perennial interest in end-of-year lists has bloomed tenfold this season as we set to bid farewell to the aughts. Lists, lists, lists – they’re everywhere, reflecting our collective impulse to mark the passage of time by compartmentalizing a year’s (or decade’s) happenings as a sorted inventory.

We live in a part of the world that’s predisposed to list-making – e.g., the Four Great Inventions, Four Great Beauties, Olympics dos-and-don’ts, basically every government circular – and in that spirit, China Daily has compiled not one, not two, but 21 (and counting?) top-10 lists, under the heading “The Top 10 Everything of 2009.”

Well, what’s good enough for China Daily is good enough for me, so I’ve made a top 10 of my own, The Top 10... wait, no… The 10 Superlative! Top-10 Lists in China Daily’s “The Top 10 Everything of 2009.”

No one will confuse the China National Opera House’s symphonic orchestra and chorus with any of Europe’s finest, but even by local standards the country’s oldest opera troupe had a night to forget at last Thursday’s performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at the National Center for the Performing Arts.

In less than two hours – 1 p.m. Copenhagen time, 8 p.m. local – a special opening ceremony will officially launch the most important environmental conference since the 1997 convention that established the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012. Over the next week and a half, COP15, short for the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, will bring together officials from 193 countries, including at least 65 heads of state, in talks to reach an agreement to cut global greenhouse gas emissions.

Fragrant Hills: Beijingers flock here in autumn when the maple leaves saturate the hillsides in great splashes of red…
–Lonely Planet: China

…and it can be a nightmare.

There are two kinds of motor sports fans: those who appreciate the pushing of fine-tuned supersonic speed machines to their absolute limit, and those who watch for what happens when that limit is breached. And it is this fine line between mastery and destruction that tantalizes drivers – from amateur racers on urban roadways to those on Formula 1’s most expensive racetrack, the USD 240 million circuit in Shanghai that hosts the Chinese Grand Prix.

In China, where the few racetracks that exist are too expensive for your average Zhou, racing enthusiasts take to the streets. Xie Yang, a Beijing street racer, used to run with a group of twentysomethings who zoomed around the Second Ring Road at night; those who could do it in 13 minutes, averaging 151km/hr, were called “13-Minute Boys.”

From the opening chord of Jean Sibelius' symphonic poem, “Finlandia” – a bold, brassy, suscitating growl – to the end of intermission, when the musicians retook their seats, the audience inside the Beijing Concert Hall on Friday waited 75 minutes before Midori Goto, the woman they had come to see, appeared onstage wearing a gray dress and familiar smile.