The best of the week
In Between the Times: Zhou Yunxia's Evolution since the 1980s
Until Thursday 12 May, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Free
This powerful retrospective from Nanjing-born artist Zhou Yunxia provides a crash course in his take on Chinese history, featuring distinct and nuanced reflections of each decade. Set against the backdrop of the Shanghai skyline, this spectacular exhibition features the use of a wide range of medium, from impressive installation pieces to surrealist oil paintings. Don't miss.
Boiler Room Shanghai
Sunday 1, Venue TBA
Overshadowing all other nightlife events this week (and maybe this month) is the Boiler Room's China debut, which is happening at an undisclosed location on the Sunday night of this coming holiday weekend. The international headliner has been confirmed as South African DJ and producer Black Coffee, and he'll be joining Shanghai-based producers GOOOOOSE (Han Han of Duck Fight Goose's solo electronic project), TzuSing and MIIIA, plus a live set from ChaCha backed by Aivilox, for what ought to be a big May holiday party.
We're not allowed to reveal the venue just yet, but if you want to get your hands on a pair of tickets to Boiler Room Shanghai, you can enter our competition online or try your luck through dArt's WeChat (dART_festival).
TNT's The Tempest
Saturday April 30 - Tuesday May 2, Lyceum Theatre, 60-380RMB
The Tempest was William Shakespeare's final complete work, and the playwright struts and frets his hour upon the stage with a tale of political intrigue, sorcery, attempted murder, drunken stupors, revenge and forgiveness. The UK's most visited Shakespeare group, TNT, presents a skeleton cast and a streamlined script for a high-energy performance. This is not the RSC, but TNT puts on a good show.
Café of the week: FUMI Coffee
FUMI Coffee, Fumin Lu’s latest brew haunt is seriously hip. It’s hard to miss the modern space as you’re sauntering down the street; stools line the half-bay windows and a feature-wall of stove-top espresso makers can’t help but draw coffee fanatics through the door. Thankfully, the brews match the decor in both quality and style. If you manage to avoid the camera-wielding crowds, the coffee is certainly worth sampling.
FUMI Coffee is at 215 Fumin Lu, near Changle Lu, Xuhui district.
This weekend is the May holiday, and in Shanghai that means a spree of music festivals to celebrate the first glimpses of summer. The weekend offerings include JZ Spring's festival of free Jingan Park shows (and not-free Shanghai Centre showcases), Strawberry Festival featuring Disclosure and the Prodigy, and Midi Festival returning to their Taihu site with a mix of international and domestic rock, metal and folk.
And if that's too much music for your brain to handle, you won't be pleased to hear there's a mamoth mid-week offering too - Iron Maiden roll into town for their Book of Souls tour - expect this to be quite a show. Plus
there's Thursday night's First Hate vs Death Team at Yuyingtang, a show that sounds like a heavy metal mudbath but is actually Danish and Swedish electro-pop battle.