The Shanghai Hot List: 20 people to watch
And here they are, in no particular order:
1. Zhang Tao: Table setter
The Shanghai-raised, Wharton-educated Zhang is the most important man in the restaurant biz you’ve never heard of. Launched in 2003, his Dianping.com has the power to make or break restaurants. With more than 8 million restaurant reviews and 12 million unique visits per month, the site that covers 316 cities, including more than 37,000 restaurants in Shanghai alone, has accrued massive influence. “We are expanding to more cities in the next year and business is continuing strong,” says Zhang. “We will add more categories outside dining such as weddings, beauty, travel and more.” Most impressive? “We will double our revenue next year,” he says.
2. Shen Hongfei: Audacious epicure
Most food writers don’t mix sex, irony and sarcasm in their columns. Shen, 47, includes plenty of each in his wry, incisive articles on culture, food and relationships, which appears in many of the country’s top magazines and in his own bestselling books. He encourages foreigners to be more adventurous with Chinese dishes. “If I eat the same thing all the time, I feel happy and safe, like waking up in the same bed every morning,” says Shen. “But frankly, foreigners have been eating the same roast duck, spring roll, hot and sour soup for … how long has it been? A hundred years maybe. Sometimes I also wish to wake up in some foreign bed.”
3. Li Sisi: Book partyer
Whether she’s behind the DJ booth, destroying the competition on the foosball table or booking China‘s hottest bands in venues around Shanghai, the 26-year-old founder of S.T.D. -- Shanghai’s original rock/electro party -- is pushing the local music scene forward. “S.T.D. is not a cause or project, it’s more a way of life, and I hope that more like-minded friends will join,” explains Li, who’s nationally recognized as a maven on the local scene. In addition to promoting China’s top acts, S.T.D. has expanded into international promotion, bringing the likes of Ratatat, Yacht, Eli Smith and The Toxic Avenger to Shanghai.
Martin Kemble4. Martin Kemble: Barrier breaker
Martin Kemble opened Art Labor with a goal: expand the narrow definition of Chinese contemporary art. In just a few years, he’s not only broken those boundaries, he’s redefined them. In his French Concession gallery -- we love its large, inviting windows -- Kemble says he runs things “with an air of indifference." In encouraging eccentric and original foreign artists and discovering “über-hot” Chinese art stars, his gallery has featured cutting-edge artistic techniques, such as ink-wash painting. Kemble attributes the gallery’s success “to this inclination to explore uncharted waters.”
5. Eduardo Vargas: Tireless taster
If you haven’t heard his name, you must not eat out much. Peruvian Eduardo Vargas is the most prolific restaurateur of casual Western cuisine in Shanghai. He currently runs eight restaurants (blink and the number will change), including three launching this month: Bistro Burger, Balthazar and Brasa Chicken. How does he keep up? “I go to maybe five of my restaurants every day," he says. "I meet with my managers and I cook sometimes.” His prediction for the future of Shanghai dining: “Very casual and inexpensive, like my new chicken place!”
Kenneth Tan6. Kenneth Tan: Voice in the universe
Not only does the 32-year-old Singaporean run his own men’s underwear boutique, MANifesto (with shops in Shanghai and Beijing), the man who did a two-year stint as editor of "Shanghaiist" in 2007-08 plays a key role in the LGBT community. He’s a primary figure behind the social networking site gays.com, which launched last year after the domain name was bought for a whopping half a million U.S. dollars. Describing it as a “gay facebook,” Tan’s mission for the site is “to conquer the entire gay universe.”
7. Zhang Haisheng: Rock collector
Five years ago, there was no home for aspiring rock musicians in Shanghai. There were no venues and little guidance from experienced players. In 2004, Zhang changed that when he gutted an old warehouse, christened it Yuyintang ('Place where music lives') and began organizing showcases for local musos. “Our intention is to enable the general public,” says the 33-year-old Zhang of Yuyintang’s mission. Now a proper park-side venue, Yuyintang is the city’s most recognizable spot for local, national and international rock bands.
Tori Zwisler8. Tori Zwisler: Outdoor enthusiast
In 1999, Zwisler became founding executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute-Shanghai, which runs the thriving Roots & Shoots environmental education program in 170 schools. Roots & Shoots leads diverse initiatives from tree planting in Inner Mongolia to organic gardening in Shanghai schoolyards. The 53-year-old American recently told Danwei.org: “We ask everyone in Shanghai to join us, help us, learn from us, and make Shanghai a better, cleaner, greener city.”
9. Calvin Chin: Schools bondsman
Although most people associate Web 2.0 with MySpace, Douban, Facebook and Xiaonei, Chin has put Web 2.0 to larger use. Qifang is his Shanghai-based website that helps Chinese students find ways to pay for their educations by connecting them with individuals and organizations that can support their academic aspirations. "It started with something that happened to me personally,” explains Chin. “After my own experience in school, I realized that access to a loan can define what school you go to and therefore your career and your life.” With an estimated 50 million people in China who need to borrow for their educations, the market is wide open for this Shanghai-based entrepreneur.
Kelvin Tay10. Kelvin Tay: Bottle opener
“Locals are becoming much more interested in wines from all over the world,” says Singaporean Kelvin Tay, 41, director of wine at the Shanghai Shangri-la’s acclaimed restaurant, Jade on 36. After 19 years in the industry, Tay remains a tireless wine proselytizer. Under his direction, Jade on 36 has won several "Wine Spectator" awards. He also launched the hotel’s Wine Ambassador program for young staff who aspire to Tay’s level of expertise. Says Tay: “This program is training the new generation for the future in wine.”
11. Yao Ming: Businessman
His foot injury may be keeping him out of NBA action this season, but in purchasing the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks last summer, the 29-year-old global icon stepped back into local basketball in a big way. Sure, the cellar-dwelling Sharks may have finished last season with a dismal 6-44 record, but with Yao’s pledge to “help Shanghai return to glory,” we suddenly can’t wait for the late November tip-off of the 2009-10 season.
Elaine Chow
12. Elaine Chow: Expatter
Chow is the spunky, 20-something editor of one of the city’s must-read English-language blogs. From indie music to the youth Internet movement, Shanghaiist offers a glimpse into the city’s inner workings in bite-sized bits. “We've been lucky enough to write about a city going through a metamorphosis,” says Chow, a New York University grad. The site’s gripping tales of illegal taxis and ladies of the night are just what many out of towners crave after a day at work. Says Chow: “We've been able to entertain and distract scores of expats, and that's kind of fun."
13. Freddie Yang: Destiny's child
Although he studied art and piano, Yang always felt a different career awaited him. “I always thought my destiny was making Chinese online games,” he says. “As I got older I began to enjoy art, literature and writing, and I realized games could combine all my hobbies. Online games are kind of art in itself.” Today this 'art' is a multi-billion yuan industry and Yang’s online portal 9you.com and it interactive community Gtown and music game Super Dancer Online have 30 million active users. The Chinese online games industry is making headlines around the world -- Yang is a big reason.
Sherrie Tian14. Sherrie Tian: Good eater
Shanghai residents don’t have to worry about pesticides. Not if they're buying organic produce from Tian. The 50-something Taiwan-born farmer and entrepreneur created BIOFarm in 2004 to promote sustainable farming in China. She’s since spread the word with workshops, field trips and bountiful farmers’ markets. Next year, BIOFarm will supply fruits and veggies to the Shanghai Expo.
15. Fauna: Laundry woman
By never granting interviews, Shanghai-bred “Fauna” has become the most mysterious blogger out there -- but her dedicated ChinaSMACK readers don’t mind. From the outrageous sex lives of the Chinese to images of disasters and street kids, her blog spares no gritty detail in revealing to her English-reading audience hot topics on the Chinese Net. To critics who complain that Fauna is airing China’s dirty laundry, she says: “Translating popular Chinese internet topics is not an original or unique idea. ChinaSMACK is just one way to show that Chinese netizens are not so different from non-Chinese netizens. ... I also want to make the website pretty and fun, allow people to respond and discuss too.”
Archie Hamilton16. Archie Hamilton: Tour guide
The man behind the amazing concert machine that is Split Works has organized China tours for musical acts from Jose Gonzalez to Sonic Youth. Split Works is currently setting up a tour by Owl City, an American electronic pop band Hamilton predicts "will be massive here." In addition to his work with Split, Hamilton is the voice behind influential music industry blog China Music Radar.
17. Tor Petersen and Renee Hartman: Street creditors
“We want to create a brand that’s a voice for the young people defining China’s urban street-wear style,” says 42-year-old Petersen, co-founder of eno. Starting with a flagship store in Shanghai, Petersen and Hartman's company now sells eno brand street-wear and accessories in 40 locations across China, collaborating on products with prominent artists and designers. Next up are punk rock and extreme sports fashion collections.
Corinne Hua and students18. Corinne Hua: Keynote speaker
Several years ago, Corinne Hua was researching migrant schools for a local NGO. She was struck by the lack of good English teachers. “At the same time, there was a growing hunger among the more advantaged population in Shanghai for meaningful volunteering opportunities,” she recalls. Hua linked the two needs with Stepping Stones, her volunteer English teaching organization that now has 200 teachers working in 18 migrant schools. “What I love about Stepping Stones is that it brings together in a very meaningful way two otherwise polarized communities,” says Hua.
19. Neocha: Poster boys
News about China is frequently dominated by IP issues, but where to go for a glimpse of China’s true creativity? Neocha (or NeochaEDGE for English speakers). Run by a team of four -- Sean Leow, cy, Liu Hao, Adam Schokora -- the site was launched as a response to the absence of an online creative hub. “I observed that the new generation of Chinese youth were creating interesting, creative content outside the view of mainstream media and had no effective platforms for promotion and collaboration," says Leow. "At the same time, there were a lot of new, cheap web technologies coming out that allowed users to upload content and easily share with others regardless of geography. We tried to apply these new technologies.” With more than 30,000 active users, the site is a focal point for Chinese creatives to post work and exchange ideas.
Raefer Wallis20. Raefer Wallis: Material man
An internationally award-wining architect, Wallis and partner Sacha Silva are the founders of A00 Architecture, a company that focuses on using sustainable and recyclable materials. After completing URBN Hotel 2008 -- Asia's first carbon neutral hotel -- the firm's database of green materials became a source of local and international fascination, and led to the formation of GIGA, a non-profit research foundation evaluating green building materials available in China. Today the firm’s portfolio includes more than 60 construction projects in China. “Our projects are a drop in the ocean of construction that is Shanghai,” Wallis says. “The main benefit comes from building awareness through the projects.”
