Maybe you've received a flier to see a show at Radio City Music Hall called Chinese New Year Splendor, which is promoted as a holiday celebration of China’s diverse cultural riches. But mixed within the traditional Mongolian dancing, orchestral music and Buddhist parables are dramatizations of the Chinese government’s oppression of Falun Gong, a qigong-based spiritual practice that is banned in China. And the show’s political content is prompting audiences to walk out by......

Mike Nelson has been working day and night at the abandoned Essex Street Market to create what he calls A Psychic Vacuum. The space has been closed off for 13 years and is now home to Nelson's first major New York exhibition. The 6,500 sq foot installation is a labyrinth of 10 rooms that create a fictional world with inspiration from the world outside its doors. Upon the opening of the space last week......

Phillyist notes a fistfight between local pols that leaves one man down for the count. Jehovah's Witnesses get a Philly contributor out of bed, things get a little geeky with a film festival and geeky gets taken to a whole new galaxy when they talk with the Dragon Queen of the Dark Kingdom. Shanghaist gets all excited this week over a new nightclub in the city unfortunately named "Snatch" and Mike Tyson is scheduled to......

One day after the US Men won the gold and silver medals in the halfpipe, the US Women did the same as Hannah Teter won the gold medal while Gretchen Bleiler netted the silver medal. The women fell one frontside 900 short of a sweep of the medals like the men had in the 2002 Games. Kelly Clark, the 2002 gold medalist fell on her final trick despite getting huge air in her run, ruining......

Hey, happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Time to drive out the old spirits of the past year and welcome the good spirits of the new year. The Chinese do this with explosions and fireworks; we'll do it rock-style, with extremely loud noises. Such as: The week starts out with a bang on Monday, with the magically delicious, occasionally unsettling experimental rock of Deerhoof (at left) at Bowery. Instead of traditional opening bands, the show will......

The Chinese food delivery man shot earlier this week by men who robbed him as he made a delivery to a Bronx apartment building died on Tuesday afternoon. Fahua Chen, 52, was shot in the eye as he tried to trap his robbers in the building's vestibule while waiting for the police. The robbers fled, and the police are still looking for them. Hearing about this, hearing that Chen's delivery was for only $9 and......

Jessica Coen, Editor, Gawker.com...

The Chinese food delivery man who had been missing since last Friday night was found safe this morning. Police had been aggressively searching for Ming Kung Chen, using search dogs and aerial units, even entering 817 of the 871 units in the Bronx housing project where Chen's last delivery was and where Chen's bike had been found parked outside. Much of the concern from the police and community was stemming from the history of violent......

There are two extremely high-profile trials around town: - In Queens, trial of Huang Chen's murder started last week. Last year, Chen was delivering food for his parents' Chinese restaurant. At an apartment building in Rochdale, he was beaten and murdered by two 16 year-olds who wanted his money to buy Nikes; the teens dumped his body into a pond later. When Chen didn't return to the restaurant, his sister went to the apartment and......

It's Chinese (and many other kinds of) New Year, and Asians all over the world are partying like it's 4703. Gothamist urges you to do the same this Year of the Rooster - just head to Chinatown, eat a lot of food and you're pretty much covered. There will be a firecracker ceremony (to scare away the evil spirits) today at 2PM, and a parade this Sunday. On both days, you'll see lion dancers......

Geoff Wolinetz, Freelance Satirist...

Today's NY Times looks at baseball in China, which has four teams and is hardly a national pasttime. The Times reports that China has a rich history of baseball, which dates to the early 1900's, but was wiped out by the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's (silly revolutions). The man behind the Chinese Baseball League is Boston-native, Thomas McCarthy, which gives Gothamist doubts about the whole thing. What is McCarthy going to teach them, the......

Tonight, PBS airs a three part series, "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience," which spans the dynamic of Chinese in America from the 1800s to present. I'm definitely going to watch, beause I've always thought of myself as American before being Chinese...when cabbies ask me where I'm from, I tend to say "New Jersey." Reviews of "Becoming American" from Newsday and The New York Times. The PBS site for Becoming American and program showtimes on WNET/Thirteen......