Marjorie Chan's A Nanking Winter is a show about the 1937 genocide of the citizens of Nanking committed by the Japanese army. The atrocity, which claimed the lives of at least 300,000 Chinese, is an often-overlooked tragedy, and Chan's story focuses on a young woman named Irene who has written a book exposing the truth about the massacre. Chan's play is inspired by Iris Chang and her book The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show––it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovered that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates in China has risen to 1,798 Yuan (or US$251).SFist welcomed in......

Photo by chef@isimmer from Flickr. The least processed form of tea, white tea is considered to be the healthiest of the family, with more catechin than any of its brothers and sisters. And, what with everyone and their pet giraffe on a bit of a tea kick lately, we thought we'd go for the top notch stuff. Though generally considered a Chinese specialty, white tea can also be found in India, Sri Lanka, and......

Happy Family Day! Happy, that is, unless you're part of the seemingly endless parade of business owners, executives, police officers, parents, people who have to work today, cynics, bitter old men, or plain old ne'er-do-wells in general who believe that Family Day is going to ruin life—and, more importantly, the economy—as we know it. Well, buck up, kiddo. It's just not that bad. Just how curmudgeonly do you have to be to focus your......

If you're like most snow-hating Torontonians, your weekend plans are changing with the weather. Suddenly, the thought of spending Friday night in high heels and club lineups has all the appeal of an ice bath. Forget new outfits or dinner spots, you're looking for new releases instead. Should you also be looking for a way to broaden your horizons, impress your intimidatingly smart date, or celebrate the Chinese New Year and Canadian cinema, look......

Photo by mappamundi. Happy Year of the Rat! The Chinese are superstitious and like to start a new year on the right foot. Here are eight ways for luck, fortune, and prosperity. (Eight, in Cantonese, is considered lucky because it sounds similar to the word "wealth." Four, however, is unlucky because it sounds like the verb "to die.")......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens' celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist found out what......

What to do if you are alone tomorrow, either because you don't celebrate Christmas, or because there's no one around to celebrate with: Spend your day curled up with the almost-human warmth of your laptop, watching the WPIX Yule Log and listening to "Blue Christmas" (the Bright Eyes version), both on endless loops that resemble depression spirals more and more with each whiskey-and-tears cocktail that passes down your throat, which, come to think of......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of......

Scandinavian Airlines says that they will permanently ground their fleet of Canadian-made Bombardier Q400 turboprops following three accidents involving problems with landing gear. In response, Bombardier will no longer market the plane as the Q400 Skid. The Dalai Lama is in Ottawa, where he will spend three days meeting with Tibetan exiles and politicians. The world's cutest religious leader said during a speech that war is obsolete, noting, "We all come from our mother's......

Mid-1970s diners expected a certain level of ostentation when eating at finer Chinese cuisine establishments. Decor was touted as much, if not more, than what went into one's mouth. The atmosphere diners were promised at today's featured restaurant hints at a feast for the senses. Except that the foo dogs were not mere decoration... The history of 346 Spadina Avenue reflects the neighbourhood's ethnic shifts. During the mid-20th century it was home to the......

The Stephen Harper government unveiled its plan for the country in the Throne Speech last night, emphasizing the usual panoply of tax-cuttin', crime fightin', environment dismissin' Conservative virtues. Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe have already stated they will not support the government, while Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will decide whether to force an election after consulting with his caucus. Dion is envied by the other opposition leaders for his massive caucus. Water prices for Toronto......

More than a week of protests in Toronto against the violence in Burma culminated last night with the Global March for the People of Burma. The demonstration began at 6:00 p.m. in front of the Chinese consulate on St. George Street before making its way to Queen's Park, where a vigil was led by monks from the city's Buddhist temples. According to the Toronto Star, hundreds heeded the call from Amnesty International and other......

This weekend, the Ex is once again hosting Toronto's popular Clothing Show, the retail sales event offering "the unique, the unusual, and the handcrafted" to the citizenry. Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, this event has been taking in greater numbers over the years because of its talented pool of local designers. And though there's an increasing amount of lazily silk-screened American Apparel T-shirts being touted as "alternative" fashion, it's still the best place to get......

September 25 this year is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. That is to say, on September 25 it'll be time to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with delicious mooncakes! The holiday's history dates back to the Xia Dynasty (2070 BC–1600 BCE), when people would gather to celebrate the full moon in honour of the mythical moon goddess Chang'e. Nowadays, people celebrate by eating pomelos and sharing mooncakes with......

No Film Friday today as we’re too busy with the festival, but we can let you know that this week sees releases of some pretty decent-sounding films: 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot ‘Em Up and Hatchet. Er, and also The Brothers Solomon, starring Will Arnett and directed by Bob Odenkirk but apparently dire. Let's Go To Prison wasn't great either. Sob. Today’s Reviews: Captain Mike Across America Captain Mike Across America is an interesting proposition:......

Ontario Grits promise a new statutory holiday in February if they're re-elected. This is all well and good, but WHERE IS MY GODDAMNED PONY ALREADY? Come on, Dalton! How is anybody supposed to vote for you if there's no giving away of ponies? Toronto City Council to unveil a new fiscal strategy to promote the local film industry. Advance preview of tomorrow's hot news story: "Denzil Minnan-Wong's head explodes." Scientist puts his own entire genetic......

Reader Cy Goldsbie (yes, relation) sent us the above photos of a box that popped up in St. Clair station over the weekend. Marked "DEPOSIT PUBLIC CONSULTATION SURVEY HERE," the box is at the "end of the southbound platform tucked into the alcove of the non-working elevator." (In other words, they're about as conspicuous as what Joe Clark calls the TTC's "intentionally hidden online complaints form.") So what's the deal? At the TTC's emergency......

Out of respect for the funeral of Richard Bradshaw, the Toronto International Film Festival Group chose not to hold their traditional big final press conference in Nathan Phillips Square yesterday, and so with slightly less fanfare than usual we received a massive lump of press releases from the Festival announcing that they’ve announced absolutely everything about the festival there is to announce, pretty much. So what does that entail? Well, in the 32nd Toronto International......

Upwards of 1,500 protesters from Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, and Hamilton marched on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday to protest the arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush. Bush will meet today with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Montebello, Quebec on the two-year-old Security and Prosperity Partnership. The agenda is to include emergency planning for an avian-flu pandemic, the recall of Chinese-made toys, and border security. Demonstrators......

Every weekday, we pick an image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve! If you're still short on plans for this weekend, go out and see the Chinese Lantern Festival, running until October at Ontario Place. This year they're featuring some forty giant illuminated lantern installations, courtesy of sixty Chinese master craftsmen, drawing on......

If today’s column title gets Rachel Sweet’s Hairspray stuck in your head for the rest of the day, good! Because then we’ll have made our point that the version of Hairspray hitting this weekend isn’t as good as the John Waters original. Though the music not being as good is only part of it. There’s also the inherent irony about making a musical in which one of the central themes is integration through a......

This summer, Toronto has offered up a multitude of ways to eat healthy. Between the new farmer’s markets and events such as Tasty Thursdays and today’s Street Treats Fair at Nathan Philips Square, fresh, local, healthy food is available all over the city. But eating healthy is only part of the equation when it comes to your total wellbeing. True, the summer months are usually a lower stress, more casual, care-free time for most people,......

After some talk in April, we were worried that the movement on street food had fizzled out. Lo and behold, Councillor Filion is rounding up his troops of chefs for the promised Toronto Street Treats Event on Friday at Nathan Phillips Square from 12 to 2 p.m. with little to disappoint. A full list of the playful and potential street food that will be served was released along with the official word that August......

Pandas is an odd name for anything, and more than a little disconcerting if you're a fan of large, bamboo-eating quadripeds who don't like to breed. Luckily for pandas and those who love them, the No Pandas gallery isn't a radical anti-panda group dedicated to the final destruction of that most endangered of species. It's an art show at Xpace, dedicated to exposing North Americans to China's up-and-coming young artists. Curator Siya Chen, who......

Thinking of getting a tattoo? Great idea! (Unless you’re thinking of getting a Chinese character and you’re not Chinese. In that case, please don’t. First, you will look like a walking cliché. Second, you will probably end up with something like “horse penis” when you meant to get “passion and love.” Kind of like these people.) As fun as tattoos are though, they’re also not a decision to be taken lightly. An excellent place......

The 17th Annual Inside Out Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival Continues! Last night, the festival presented its centrepiece gala screening at the Isabelle Bader Theatre of King and Clown (reviewed by Torontoist at last year's TIFF), a movie about a Korean monarch who falls in love with his cross-dressing jester that also happens to be the top-grossing Korean film of all time (OK, so at least it was until this happened). Meanwhile,......

One of two winning lotto tickets in Wednesday's $38.7 million Lotto 6/49 jackpot has been turned in by twenty carpenters. That means there is one more winning ticket worth $19.7 million out there, people! It is time for the wacky Dave Barry-esque hijinks and capers to commence! I call dibs on conning an old lady out of her wheelchair by wearing an obviously fake moustache and pretending to be Ringo Starr. (Also amusing: the article......

Downtown corners are speckled with hot dog vendors selling wieners to hungry pedestrians. There are no salad bar carts, no roti carts, no souvlaki carts, and no Chinese bun carts. Food vendors on the street sell hot diggity dogs due to Toronto's strict public health bylaws: Food preparation must be limited to the reheating of precooked meat products in the form of wieners or similar sausage products to be served on a bun. Hazardous raw......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......