I’ve occasionally heard “Shanghai just doesn’t really make the grade in terms of cultural goings-on” (I think we’re talking about things attractive to Westerners).

Admittedly this isn’t Paris, London, or NYC, but there are some things happening. Within the last some months, we’ve had: Riverdance, the Eagles, Usher, Avril Lavigne, Bob Dylan, and the Eels (well, the latter bombed out, but anyway) opened by Nouvelle Vague. That’s not even counting the Walking with Dinosaurs, or the Song Siheng piano recital, or Yo Yo Ma last fall, or Twelfth Night this spring, or the upcoming Odd Couple (these by two of Shanghai’s three local English-language theater troupes), or July’s Sesame Street roadshow performance, or this approaching fall’s Berlin Philharmonic visit, or the F1 this spring, or Yao Ming’s Shanghai Sharks games—to name just a few. In short, partly it’s about hearing what’s going on. Here are a few sources:

1. www.smartshanghai.com has a mailing list to which you can subscribe to get a weekly newsletter
2. www.shanghaiist.com provides a short daily update of news and upcoming events
3. www.cityweekendnews.com provides a weekly update of upcoming events
4. www.enjoyshanghai.com provides a weekly update of upcoming events
5. Social groups (each with their own mailing list) like
   1. www.shanghaimamas.org
   2. www.fccsh.org The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club
   3. www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn The Royal Asiatic Society
   4. www.internations.org InterNations (Shanghai Chapter)
   5. www.couchsurfing.com CouchSurfers (Shanghai Chapter)
   6. Xin Danwei (a sort of virtual office hangout space)
   7. www.russianshanghai.com Russian Club of Shanghai
   8. Georgetown U-in-Shanghai
   9. Columbia U-in-Shanghai
   10. www.communitycenter.cn Community Center Shanghai
   11. The Shanghai Folk Rock United group

Other things you can do.

www.creativehunt.com/shanghai/ Madness at 65-4 Maoming Bei Lu which was a forum for creative people to take seven minutes to share why they are passionate about something.

www.tangogo.org or www.tangoshanghai.com.cn if you are into Tango, there is a lot happening, pretty much every night of the week.