26 brilliant things to do in Shanghai this February

Photograph: Yang Xiaozhe

Can you believe it's February already? While the first week of the month may well be dominated by all things Chinese New Year, once you're done drowning in hongbao and battling the crowds at airports and railway stations across the country, there's still a lot to be getting on with this month. The Super Bowl is on Monday, Valentine's Day is right around the corner and there's a slew of stand-up comedy, international music acts and film releases to keep you occupied until it's warm enough to do things outside again. Read on for our picks for the month ahead.

Things to Do

Photograph: courtesy 247tickets (Museum of Failure)

Museum of Failure

Touring a collection of arguably terrible ideas and excellent ideas that were horribly implemented, the Museum of Failure has arrived on the third floor of Shanghai’s No 1 Department Store (B3), bringing with it a bunch of creations that crashed and burned in the annals of innovation, from Colgate's microwave meals to spray-on condoms and fish-flavoured cat water.

📍No 1 Shopping Centre, 830 Nanjing Dong Lu, near Dianchi Lu. Until Sun 17 Mar. 70RMB; 45RMB (early bird). Extract the QR code in the picture above to purchase tickets.

Yuyuan Lantern Festival

See Yu Garden lit up for the Year of the Pig at the 24th annual festival where the area is decked out with huge displays of brightly coloured lanterns. Be prepared to face the crowds.

📍Yuyuan, 137 Anren Jie, near Fuyou Lu. Until Fri 22. 5.30pm-varies. 50-80RMB (adults); 30-50RMB (kids). 

Historic Shanghai CNY Pop-Up Walks

Sticking around in Shanghai over the CNY break? Explore the city at its quietest with heritage society Historic Shanghai, who are putting on four walking tours over the week. RSVP to [e-mail] to reserve your spot and for the meeting point.

📍Meeting point revealed with booking. Sun 3-Sun 10. Times vary. 250RMB; 150RMB (members).

Super Bowl LIII

It's game time. Super Bowl LIII kicks off on Mon 4 at 7.30am China time. Tap here to find our full list of where you can catch the Los Angeles Rams facing off against the New England Patriots with accompanying breakfast, Buds and buds.

📍Various locations. Mon 4. From 6am. 

Brian Aylward: Stand Up Comedy Live in Shanghai

Dubbed 'one of Asia's most influential stand-up comedians' by the Korea Times, Canadian stand-up comic Brian Aylward is coming to Shanghai. He's performed in excess of 2,600 shows in more than 20 countries in a career spanning over a decade. In 2016 he was named Best Stand-Up Comic of the Year at the Canadian Comedy Awards.

📍Shanghai Comedy Bunker, Third Floor, Jingan Sports Centre, 428 Jiangning Lu, near Wuding Lu. Fri 22. 9-10.30pm. 120RMB; 100RMB (pre-sale). 

Blackout Comedy presents: Black Kisstory

Blackout Comedy presents Black Kisstory – celebrating both Valentine’s Day and Black History Month. Expect jokes, giveaways, dinner and drink specials and more. Featuring Mamahuhu star Adam Hamilton, Apriel Powell, Erica Switzer and more.

📍RoadHouse, 1124-2 Beijing Xi Lu, near Shanxi Bei Lu. Fri 15-Sat 16. 8.30-9.30pm. 75RMB. 

Comedy UN presents: Kurt Dunsing

Chicago native and Shanghai comedy stalwart Kurt Dunsing headlines Comedy UN with his latest show Clown Syndrome. The 2018 China International Festival Festival runner-up, who has performed across China, Hong Kong and Japan, will be supported by Eric Alexander, Erica Switzer, Nate Johns and host Ben Frank. 

📍Comedy UN, 549 Yanan Zhong Lu, near Shaanxi Nan Lu. Fri 22. 9-10.30pm. 70RMB; 50 (pre-sale).

Unravel: Waves

Live storytelling group Unravel is back for its first show of 2018, this time in collaboration with The Shanghai Literary Review and comic book collective Shaving in the Dark. As well as the usual stories from the latest batch of Unravelers, TSLR and SITD will be releasing a limited edition comic book collaboration. The theme of the stories this month is 'waves'.

📍Yuyintang Park, B1, 1398 Yuyuan Lu, near Dingxi Lu. Thu 28. 6.30-9.30pm. 60RMB; 50RMB (presale); 120RMB with comic book (all tickets include a drink).

Music & Nightlife

Photograph: courtesy 247tickets (Kodaline)

Come Correct All Stars

Shanghai's hip hop dignitaries hit Arkham to deliver some new and old school rhymes. Come Correct Crew will bring the funk, soul, disco and rare groove classics for a hard-hitting Saturday evening. 

📍Arkham, Found 158, 168 Julu Lu, near Chengdu Nan Lu. Sat 2. 10pm-late. 100RMB; 80RMB (pre-sale).

New Shake City II: The '90s R&B Concert Sequel

Beepers, baggy pants, crop tops, floppy disks, Lexus sedans and another round of '90s R&B. Shanghai's house of funk and soul Shake is taking it back with a set featuring the music of Mary J Blige, Blackstreet, Janet, Destiny's Child, Mariah Carey, Faith Evans and more.

📍Shake, Third Floor, 46 Maoming Nan Lu, near Jinxian Lu. Fri 15-Sat 16 and Fri 22-Sat 23. 100RMB.

Kodaline: Live in Shanghai 2019

Upon releasing their new album, Politics of Living, UK Platinum-selling Irish band Kodaline (perhaps best known for their song ‘All I Want’ featured in The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack) are coming to Shanghai for the first time.

📍Bandai Namco Shanghai Base, 179 Yichang Lu, near Jiangning Lu. Wed 20. 8-10pm. 520RMB. Extract the QR code above to book tickets. 

Craig David's TS5 Tour

Y2K-era UK garage legend Craig David is set to play in Shanghai. Fast-fast-forward to 2018 and he's transformed himself from a skinny R&B singer based in Southampton, to a muscle-bound, Miami-based DJ spinning at some of the city's most exclusive pre-parties.

📍Jingan Sports Centre, 116 Wenshui Lu, near Zhonghuan Lu. Fri 22. 8-10pm. 480-880RMB. Extract the QR code above to book tickets.

Mutant Beach at Specters

Rock, soul and super dive bar Specters holds a night of ska, world beat and beach music, with DJs Nico Panoramix, Baron von West and Beardswap. 

📍Specters, Bldg D, 753 Yuyuan Lu, near Zhenning Lu. Sat 23. 10pm-late. Free entry. 

Eating & Drinking

Photograph: courtesy Stone Brewing

Stone Brewing Beer University

Get educated at the second-ever Stone Beer University workshop, a guided tasting event featuring Stone and their fellow craft brewing comrades. You’ll be able to enjoy complex, hard-to-find beers, meet local brewers to get some behind-the-scenes insights into the beer brewing process in China, and sip on six different beer tasters. 

📍Stone Brewing, 1107 Yuyuan Lu, near Jiangsu Lu. Wed 20. 7-8.30PM. 148RMB.

Valentine's Day dining in Shanghai

Treat your main squeeze with one of the many Valentine's Day dining specials on offer in Shanghai. Extract the QR code below for our list on where to wine and dine to your heart's content this Thu 14.

📍Various locations. Thu 14.

Cocktail Cinema: Fight Club

The latest edition of Cocktail Cinema will be screening the 1999 classic Fight Club. As usual, they'll be mixing three bespoke cocktails inspired by the movie, paired with snacks and soft drinks. The location of the screening will be revealed 24 hours prior via email.

📍Location TBA. Sat 23. 250RMB. Extract the QR code above to book.

CNY Specials at Milkstand by Pâte

Pâte's new Taikang Terrace location is open every weekend during the month of February with a new specials menu each week. During CNY (Feb 2-3 and Feb 9-10), it'll have festive specials like 'edible hongbao' and citrus tarts, along with in-house speciality Tart Tatin.

📍First Floor, 169 Jianguo Zhong Lu, near Ruijin Er Lu. Sat 2-Sat 24 (open Sat-Sun). Free entry.

Film

Image: courtesy 20th Century Fox

Deadpool 2

Deadpool is back with a vengeance, and this time it's for die-hard fans only. With its steady stream of butt gags and CGI viscera spliced in between self-commentary and several hundred in-jokes, no film has been as unforgiving to latecomers since Alfred Hitchcock locked tardy Psycho ticket holders out of theatres when the opening credits rolled...

📍On general release until Mon 25.

Dead Pigs

Director Cathy Yan's debut film Dead Pigs makes an ensemble movie out of today's Shanghai and the people we know in it: a young busboy, an ambitious American architect, an apathetic rich girl, a farmer and a no-bullshit ayi who refuses to sell her property. Their disparate lives converge and come to a head when, mirroring real-life events, thousands of rotting pig carcasses are found floating in the Huangpu River, Shanghai's drinking water source.

📍On general release until Fri 1 Mar.

The Wandering Earth

Adapted from a short story by renowned sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, director Frant Gwo's much-anticipated The Wandering Earth is being hailed as China's biggest sci-fi movie to date and is set for release on Chinese New Year's Day. The premise? As the sun is about to die out, humanity sets a plan in motion to launch planet Earth out of orbit and to find a new home in space.

📍On general release from Tue 5.

GoEast Movie Night: This Is Not What I Expected 喜欢你

For this special post-Valentine's Day edition of GoEast's monthly movie night, the language school is screening 2017 'quirky foodie romantic comedy' 喜欢你 (Xihuan Ni, This Is Not What I Expected) at both its campuses. The film was shot in Old Xuhui and features on-trend actress Zhou Dongyu and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

📍GoEast Language Center, 194-196 Zhengmin Lu, near Guoding Lu. Fri 15. 7-9pm. Free entry.

Roma

Set for a China release at some point this month (according to Douban, though the actual date is still tba) Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón's deeply personal black and white marvel Roma unhurriedly observes the smallest parts first, before expanding to gradually reveal the social and political canvas of 1970s Mexico City, where he grew up in a middle-class neighbourhood called Roma.

📍Release date TBA.

Art

Image: @上海当代艺术馆 via Weibo

500 Years of Western Paintings – Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum

A comprehensive exhibition tracing 500 years of Western art history from the Renaissance to Post-modernism comes to Powerlong Art Museum. You'll see works from well-known artists – think Morandi, Rubens, Manet, Turner and Van Gogh. The art has been selected from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum collection, which houses around 30,000 works from Japan, other Asian countries and Europe.

📍Powerlong Art Museum, 3055 Caobao Lu, near Xinzhen Lu. Until Tue 30 Apr. 180RMB.

Post Contemporary Urban Graphics 7019

Graffiti art is rare in Shanghai, and so is the opportunity to see a ton of it in an art museum. MoCA is presenting urban graphics from eight graffiti artists, and you'll be able to see street art that originally appeared in the metro stations of New York during the American presidential election, and graffiti scattered around Paris streets too. Artists include Shepard Fairey (Obey), Qiong Wan (JonOne), John Matos Crash, ZEVS, L’atlas, Vhils, M, Chat and Tanc (Tancrede Perrot).

📍MoCa, 231 Nanjing Xi Lu, near Huangpi Bei Lu. Until Fri 25 Apr. 80RMB.

Classical/Stage

Photograph: courtesy 247tickets (Coriolanus)

NT Live: Coriolanus (Screening)

National Theatre Live will broadcast the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Coriolanus, Shakespeare’s searing tragedy of political manipulation and revenge, with Tom Hiddleston in the title role and Mark Gatiss as Menenius, directed by the Donmar's Artistic Director Josie Rourke.

📍Huangpu Theatre, 780 Beijing Dong Lu, near Guizhou Lu. Wed 20. 7pm-tba. 100-200RMB.

School of Rock the Musical

Andrew Lloyd Webber's unexpected Broadway hit (based on the 2003 film with Jack Black) is about Dewey Finn, a failed, wannabe rock star who decides to earn an extra bit of cash by posing as a supply teacher at a prestigious prep school. 

📍Shanghai Grand Theatre, 300 Renmin Dadao, near Huangpi Bei Lu. Times vary. Fri 22-Thu 7 Mar. 160-1,080RMB.

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