1. Amer
2. Ash
3. Arcadian
4. A Wounded Fawn
5. Azrael
6. Best Wishes to All
7. Conjuring: Last Rites
8. Green Room
9. Gretel & Hansel
10. Him
11. Let the Corpses Tan
12. MadS
13. Murder Party
14. Night of the Reaper
15. Oddity
16. Other
17. Revenge
18. The J-Horror Virus
19. The Long Walk
20. Vertigo
21. V/H/S Halloween

1. Blue in the Face
2. Casino
3. Clueless
4. Copycat
5. Crimson Tide
6. Dead Man
7. Demon Knight
8. Die Hard with a Vengeance
9. Empire Records
10. Fallen Angels
11. Flirt
12. Four Rooms
13. Ghost in the Shell
14. GoldenEye
15. Heat
16. Kicking & Screaming
17. Kids
18. Mallrats
19. Memories
20. Seven
21. Smoke
22. The Doom Generation
23. The Quick and the Dead
24. The Usual Suspects
25. Village of the Damned
26. Welcome to the Dollhouse

M31 – January 2026 – Issue 005
Creative Shanghai in Practice
31.2304° N, 121.4737° E

Quite a few years ago, when I would start a new year, I used to announce via a blog post something that I was planning for the year. It could take the form of a new project, or some sort of initiative, but for me it was a way to set some sort of direction for the year. It’s a “practice” I haven’t done in years — at least since leaving Tokyo just over 10 years ago — and it’s something I was thinking about during my short holiday break. Looking back at what I’ve been doing via my various activities over the last year or two (PauseTalk, PechaKucha Night, FOTO5, Shanghai Design Pins) I started thinking about how all of these things could better work together, and be something I can build on in order to continue to develop new things as a “creative” in this city.

2026 is going to be about building and sustaining a creative rhythm, and I’m calling it “Creative Shanghai in Practice.”

I already have weekly rhythms (FOTO5), monthly ones (M31), and bi-monthly ones (PauseTalk, PechaKucha Night — although PKN is almost turning into a monthly affair), and I plan on adding some fun new ideas to these, that fall into these rhythms, and in some cases create new ones. I don’t want to already talk too much about them, but you’ll hear about them soon enough as I launch them in the coming months.

Lastly, as part of this year-long initiative, I want to start giving myself quarterly themes to be inspired by — first up, “Edges & Beginnings.”

—

What’s M31? It’s a name I used close to two decades ago as my sort of publishing imprint/company label for the activities I was doing while I lived in Tokyo, and I’ve decided to revive it. It’s simply inspired by my birthday of May 31. The logo you see above was designed by Ian Lynam, and is part of a set of 31 logos he created for me back in the late 2000s, which I’ve decided to start re-using for this newsletter.

All the activities I organize in Shanghai have dedicated groups in WeChat, where you’ll get the latest updates, and so please contact me to be added to any of them.

PauseTalk

Some great news to start the year! PauseTalk Vol. 100 is now set to take place on Thursday, January 15 at Cotton’s (294 Xinhua Road, 2nd floor) – yup, a new venue for the series. As usual, the official (moderated) session will start at 19:30, and it should now be a great environment to keep chatting (and drinking) after it’s done (I usually end the official session at around 21-21:30). There is no entry fee, and although not obligatory, I would encourage everyone to order at least 1 drink, as a thanks to the owner. I’m very excited for this, and although it’s a new space for me, I think the location will be more convenient for many. For more detailed updates, you can join our group on WeChat (contact me to be added).

Also, in keeping with this idea of creative practice I mentioned at the top, although I won’t be changing how I run the session — start with a round of intros by everyone attending, and then I start asking questions based on what was shared — I do plan on weaving in questions relating to the themes I’m currently exploring.

You’ll find archives of past events on the PauseTalk website, which includes recaps for each session.

PechaKucha Night

Last month’s PechaKucha Night (Vol. 49) — pictured above, held on Thursday, December 11 — was an absolute blast, and I think we celebrated George and I’s 20th PKN together here in Shanghai in style. My “Movies That Made Me” presentation seemed to get a lot of interest (from the number of people who came up to me after the presentation to talk about movies), and the “PechaKucha Mix” (I created a deck, and two people presented it without knowing anything about the content) was as fun as it was when I used to do it at my Tokyo events, and we’ll definitely be revisiting this format in the future.

As for our next event, yup, Vol. 50 is already just around the corner, set for Thursday, January 22 (a week after my PauseTalk Vol. 100 event, so it’s going to be a busy January). We’re also returning to Haworth in Jing’an, the space we used for last month’s Vol. 49, as it offered up a great environment, it’s very well located, and it seemed very appreciated by the crowd there.

As for the rest of 2026, I expect we’ll be running the series monthly/bi-monthly like we did in 2025.

You can always check our Shanghai page on the official PechaKucha website to see the listings for the latest events, and contact me if you’d like to be added to our group on WeChat.

FOTO5

The themes we explored in the FOTO5 photography club over the past month were FILTERED, MUSIC, ABANDONED (pictured above), and CHRISTMAS (all links are to my contributions, as shared on Bluesky).

Doing this activity has been so much fun this past year — finally giving me the kick in the ass I needed to start thinking more creatively about photography — and I’m excited to keep it going in 2026, and evolve it a bit. One of the first things that will be changing starting this month is to be more deliberate with the weekly themes — and so for this first quarter I’ll be using “Edges & Beginnings” as a starting point, and then use each week/month to explore this overarching theme. For example, the first weekly theme/prompt of this year is “Edges of Light.”

In the FOTO5 photography club, each week I share a theme/prompt and everyone is invited to take five photos that are inspired by that theme. If you’re interested in partcipating, contact me so I can add you to the group on WeChat.

Shanghai Design Pins 

Here are some of the latest Shanghai Design Pins that were shared in the group since last month.

• 485 Metagalaxy (Architecture List) — a mixed re-use space

• Design in the City 2026 (Design Shanghai) — upcoming design event taking place March 5-22, with exhibitions/spots all over the city

• Ink Ink Market (Dezeen) — a new food market designed by Linehouse (pictured above)

• TopoPoster: International Poster Design Exhibition (official website) — held in December 13-22, as a prelude exhibition to the upcoming inaugural Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale

Shanghai Design Pins  is a group on WeChat where we share design-related spots (and events) in Shanghai — contact me to be added.

Shanghai Field Notes

What’s this? I like teasing things, and so I’ll just leave this new section as is, and you’ll see what it’s all about next month. Hint: it sort of builds on this newsletter, and involves print.

One More Thing

Every year — for 16 years now — I end it by posting a giant list of my favorite media released during that past year, and so here’s the one I shared for 2025. It includes my top 5 (in alphabetical order) for a multitude of categories, including games, movies, TV, anime, music, comics, and more. Also, I’ve been tracking my reading habit for the past few years — trying to get back into a rhythm of reading books regularly — and this past year ended up being a great year for me, which you can see here.

And so that’s it for this month. I hope you’ll continue to follow along with what I’m up to in 2026, and that this experimentation in being more deliberate about how I frame my creative output this year will be something that results in interesting things to share in this newsletter throughout the rest of the year.

For more on me, you can alway have a look at my personal website (where I share the newsletters in case you missed previous editions) — I’ve been blogging since 1998 — or for lighter stuff (and lots of movie reviews) you can follow me on Bluesky.

M31 – January 2026 – Issue 005
Creative Shanghai in Practice
31.2304° N, 121.4737° E

Below, a list of what I read in 2025, with links to my reviews on Goodreads.

1. Ajax Penumbra (Robin Sloan)
2. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism (Sarah Wynn-Williams)
3. Double or Nothing (Kim Sherwood)
4. For Your Eyes Only (Ian Fleming)
5. Foundry (Eliot Peper)
6. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad (Austin Kleon)
7. Mondo Tokyo: Dispatches from a Secret Japan (Patrick Macias)
8. People From My Neighborhood (Hiromi Kawakami)
9. Pietr-le-Letton (Simenon)
10. So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance (Gabriel Zaid)
11. Strange Pictures (Uketsu)
12. The Almost Perfect Reset: Plan, Execute and Enjoy an Almost Perfect Creative Break in Tokyo (Luis Mendo)
13. The Dream Architects: Adventures in the Video Game Industry (David Polfeldt)
14. The Seven Dials Mystery (Agatha Christie)
15. The Suitcase Clone (Robin Sloan)
16. Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir (Craig Mod)
17. Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto)
18. Yearbook (Seth Rogen)

Favorite Games
This year I really fell in love with the newly released Switch 2, which explains the very heavy presence of Nintendo games in this year’s list. The Switch 2 really is my favorite console, and I love playing old and new games on it (I’m currently thoroughly enjoying playing both Red Dead Redemption and Hitman: World of Assassination on it), both on TV and in handheld mode in bed or laid out on a sofa. Although not really represented here, I do also play a lot of older games on my Steam Deck, and I’m very interested in getting the Steam Machine when it comes out, as the companion to my Switch 2.

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Xbox Series S)
• Ball x Pit (Switch 2)
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Switch 2)
• Mario Kart World (Switch 2)
• Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Switch)

Honorable Mentions: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (Switch 2), Dear me, I was… (Switch 2), Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2), Fast Fusion (Switch 2), Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World (Switch 2), Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Switch 2), South of Midnight (Xbox Series S), Split Fiction (PS5), The Crew Motorfest (PC/Xbox Series S)

Favorite Board Games
Even though I’ve been big into board games for years, I never played enough new releases to include it as a category in this list, but this past year I found myself picking up quite a few games released in 2025, and so here we go — and the selection is definitely biased towards smaller games, since that’s what I mostly buy, to be able to play at lunch time with colleagues at work. It was in fact a big board gaming year for me, as I ended up playing 111 different board games throughout the year (I had given myself the goal of playing at least 100 different games), and logged 316 play session.

• Alibis
• Arkham Travel Guide
• Ruins
• Symbiose
• Tacta

Favorite Movies
I wasn’t sure if I was going to surpass the count of 175 movies watched last year, but to my surprise I ended up watching 209 movies this past year. I definitely find myself preferring movies over TV shows these days, and that would help explain why the count is so high. As for my favorites, I would say there are many that could have been included in the top 5, but I feel very strongly about the movies I did include.

• 100 Meters
• Black Bag
• Highest 2 Lowest
• Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
• Nouvelle Vague

Honorable Mentions: 28 Years Later, A House of Dynamite, Becoming Led Zeppelin, Fixed, Superman, Wake Up Dead Man

Favorite Movies of 1995
The only year-based movie marathon I did this past year was for 1995, and although I’m still not done (I’ve watched 20+ movies), I think this top 5 is a good representation of  my favorites from that year.

• Casino
• Crimson Tide
• Fallen Angels
• Flirt
• Ghost in the Shell

Favorite TV
The reason I’m able to watch so many movies is because I’ve definitely been cutting down on the amount of TV shows I watch — at this point I don’t have a lot of patience if something doesn’t really grab me in the first 1-2 episodes, and so this year I found myself dropping a lot of shows that I started watching. But this top 5 is as solid as I’ve seen, and I can’t recommend these shows enough.

• Alien: Earth
• Mr. Scorcese
• Pluribus
• Severance
• The Studio

Honorable Mentions: American Primeval, Andor, Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, MobLand, Murderbot, Platonic, The Bear, The Beatles Anthology

Favorite Anime
I think I watched less series this year than the previous, but I definitely thoroughly enjoyed everything listed here — but I decided to include the Mononoke movie here instead of in the movie category.

• Dan Da Dan
• Gnosia
• Lazarus
• Mononoke the Movie: Chapter 2 – The Ashes of Rage
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Favorite Web/Sports
The one change this year is the addition of Criterion’s “Closet Picks” series, which I started really enjoying this past year (and I also subscribed to the Criterion Channel). And I continue to be quite obsessed with AEW (for pro wrestling) and F1.

• AEW Dynamite, Collision, PPVs (Triller TV)
• Closet Picks (from the Criterion YouTube channel)
• F1 TV (app/website)
• Maigomika (YouTube channel)
• Sam and Victor (YouTube channel)

Favorite Songs
As with last year, I really am turning into more of a “singles” listener at this point (and playlists) instead of albums, and again, it was so difficult to narrow down my favorite tracks of the year down to 5, so I again cheat and highlight a top 10, and then lots of honorable mentions. They are taken from a smart playlist I have of favorited tracks from 2025 that includes 55 songs. I also made a point to not include more than one track from each artist.

• “Abyss” (Anika)
• “All Right” (Villagerrr)
• “Broke My Heart” (Caribou)
• “Catch These Fists” (Wet Leg)
• “Contact” (Rick White)
• “Forgiving” (Sir Chloe)
• “La Spirale” (Biche)
• “Our House” (Toro y Moi)
• “Sincerely” (Momma)
• “Wanna Start a Band?” (Sleigh Bells)

Honorable Mentions: “Aerial Troubles” (Stereolab), “Believer” (Peel Dream Magazine), “IGA” (Sunbathe), “Jump Out” (Ezra Furman), “Lucky” (Surfbort), “So Far Down” (Sloan), “Surfing Castafiore” (April March), “Take Care” (Tracey),”Touch You” (Georgie & Joe), “What Do I Know” (Deep Sea Diver), “Wisteria Flower” (Shinichiro Yokota)

Favorite Albums
Although I don’t listen to full albums as much these days (especially new ones), there are still a few standouts that I turned to occasionally.

• Based on the Best Seller (Sloan)
• Bunky Becky Birthday Boy (Sleigh Bells)
• Honey (Caribou)
• Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Stereolab)
• Moisturizer (Wet Leg)

Honorable Mentions: Again (Rick White), Free Soul (Tetsuro Yafune), Sounds from the Far East – 2025 Edition (Soichi Terada)

Favorite Podcasts
Two additions in the top 5 this year, first a return to listening to Conan O’Brien’s podcast (I was a listener when it first started, but had dropped it years ago), and then the new gaming podcast, Post Games, which I like because of its strong editorial focus.

• 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s: The 2000s
• Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
• Pop Culture Happy Hour
• Post Games
• Pure TokyoScope

Honorable Mentions: On Margins, The Spy Who, The Stack

Favorite Comics
No surprise, I continue to be a DC head (I don’t read any Marvel comics). Last year I was all about the new “Absolute” series from DC, but I ended up dropping all of them (and didn’t much enjoy the new ones) except for Absolute Batman.

• Absolute Batman
• Batman (2025)
• DC K.O.
• Justice League Unlimited
• Usagi Yojimbo (Ice and Snow, Ten Thousand Plums, The Crow)

Honorable Mentions: G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (and all the “Silent” special issues), Invincible Universe: Battle Beast, The Question: All Along the Watchtower, Wonder Woman

Favorite BDs
There are still a lot of new albums of series I like that came out in 2025 that I haven’t had a chance to read yet, but here are a few that I did read and thoroughly enjoyed — and yes, that includes the new Astérix album, which I think is the best album released since the departure of Uderzo.

• Astérix en Lusitanie (Astérix, Tome 41)
• De givre et de feu (Thorgal Saga, Tome 4)
• La danse du soleil  (XIII Trilogy – Jones, Tome 3)
• Le monde selon Oz (Undertaker, Tome 8)
• Si les dieux t’abandonnent… (Largo Winch, Tome 25)

Favorite Magazines
This list is completely different from last year, because I don’t have access to Apple News+ anymore, and so can’t read all of the magazines I used to read (except for Monocle, which I subscribe to directly). The rest are all Japanese, that I read through the Rakuten digital magazine subscription — and it’s a return to titles I used to like when I lived there. And a shout out to the beautiful collection of Here and There, published by Shanghai’s Bananafish Books.

• Brutus
• Casa Brutus
• Here and There Vol 1 – Vol. 13.5 (Bananafish Books edition)
• Monocle
• Popeye (the special English language edition)

Hi everyone, and welcome to the December edition of the M31 newsletter! I’m Jean Snow, and this is where I share monthly updates on what I’m up to here in Shanghai. Let’s get to it.

What’s M31? It’s a name I used close to two decades ago as my sort of publishing imprint/company label for the activities I was doing while I lived in Tokyo, and I’ve decided to revive it. It’s simply inspired by my birthday of May 31. The logo you see above was designed by Ian Lynam, and is part of a set of 31 logos he created for me back in the late 2000s, which I’ve decided to start re-using for this newsletter.

All the activities I organize in Shanghai have dedicated groups in WeChat, where you’ll get the latest updates, and so please contact me to be added to any of them.

PauseTalk

On the PauseTalk side of things, no big updates since last month except that I’ve decided to postpone the upcoming Vol. 100 to sometime in January (instead of December). With a PechaKucha Night planned for early December (see below), and the second-half of December feeling like it might not be the best time to do an event, with many busy during the holidays, I felt like it was best to wait a bit.

I’ll settle on a date in the coming weeks, and share it in the usual places (the PauseTalk website and in the WeChat group).

You’ll find archives of past events on the PauseTalk website, which includes recaps for each session.

PechaKucha Night

In November we had our Vol. 48, which was a fun event, held in yet another new space for us (pictured above).

Our next PechaKucha Night (Vol. 49) is happening next week, on Thursday, December 11, and it will take place at a lovely space called Haworth. As I’ve already mentioned, this will be the 20th event George and I have produced since re-launching the series in 2023, and we decided to have a theme this time, “Transformation.” Also, I’ll be doing a presentation — something I’ve been doing every December, so it’s turning into a tradition — about “The Movies That Made Me,” in which I talk about my passion for movies, and how various movies influenced me throughout my life. I’m also introducing the “PechaKucha Mix” for the first time in Shanghai — basically, an improv activity in which I create a presentation, and will have someone present it without having seen the slides. This time, our “someone” will be two members of a local improv troupe, so should be lots of fun.

And looking even further, we are already circling January 22 for our first PKN of 2026, which will be our Vol. 50, which is a nice milestone to celebrate as well.

You can always check our Shanghai page on the official PechaKucha website to see the listings for the latest events.

FOTO5

The latest themes we explored in the FOTO5 group were FAMOUS, EYES (my contribution is pictured above), NATURE (and I did a part 2 as well, as I had traveled to Chengdu), and COOKING. This time, I reacted with a 100WORD comment to one of the photos that had been shared for the EYES theme.

—

It was a dangerous time to be meeting, considering the current escalation, but his handler had been clear. Contact at this time was essential, as there was an update to the operation that needed to be shared immediately.

He was dreading it but was expecting it.

It was a burn notice.

Despite everything he had done for his country (even if it was an adopted one), and the sacrifices made, trust had been lost, and now this.

Looking up, he then noticed the camera.

—

It was for this photo:

If you’re interested in participating in the FOTO5 photo club, contact me so I can add you to the group on WeChat.

Shanghai Design Pins

Here are some of the latest Shanghai Design Pins that were shared in the group since last month.

• 15th Shanghai Biennale (Hypebeast) — was held in November

• Barraco (Instagram) — a tiny bar that was made up almost entirely of reclaimed doors and windows (sadly, now closed)

• Espace Gabrielle Chanel (Designboom) — beautiful new library space for art books at the Shanghai Power Station of Art (pictured above)

• Miu Miu Literary Club (Vogue) — literary event held recently in Shanghai

• Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art in China (Dezeen) — designed by BIG, opening in 2026 (pictured below)

• The Silent Gaze (The Spaces) — flagship store on Yonguyan Road for fashion brand theboyhasnopatience (TBHNP), designed by Beijing-based FON studio

• Yuanverse Living Paradigms (ArchDaily) — not in Shanghai, but developed in collaboration between AOMOMO studios and Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Design Pins is a group on WeChat where we share design-related spots (and events) in Shanghai — contact me to be added.

One More Thing

Last Friday night ended up being quite good — after the end-of-day apéro at the studio, I had a burger at Goodman — certainly one of my favorite burgers in town — and then we went to a couple of cocktail bars, ending at Pop Corner, which has a lovely retro atmosphere inside (and is also quite popular, as we tried going first, it was packed, so ended up going again later when it was less crowded).

Well, that does it for this December edition of the newsletter. If you’re in town, do come to our upcoming PechaKucha Nights (or even PauseTalk), and here’s hoping for a great start to 2026.

For more on me, you can alway have a look at my personal website (where I share the newsletters in case you missed them) — I’ve been blogging since 1998 — or for lighter stuff (and lots of movie reviews) you can follow me on Bluesky.

Hello, and welcome to this latest edition of the M31 newsletter. I’m Jean Snow, and read on for the latest on PauseTalk (with Vol. 100 just around the corner), PechaKucha Night (next week!), and the other fun stuff I’m up to these days.

What’s M31? It’s a name I used close to two decades ago as my sort of publishing imprint/company label for the activities I was doing while I lived in Tokyo, and I’ve decided to revive it. It’s simply inspired by my birthday of May 31. The logo you see above was designed by Ian Lynam, and is part of a set of 31 logos he created for me back in the late 2000s, which I’ve decided to start re-using for this newsletter.

All the activities I organize in Shanghai have dedicated groups in WeChat, where you’ll get the latest updates, and so please contact me to be added to any of them.

PauseTalk

PauseTalk Vol. 99 was held on Thursday, October 23 at Bananafish Books, and ended up getting the biggest turnout yet for a PauseTalk session in Shanghai, with 20 participants. It was a lively bunch, with of course a long intro roll at the start – that itself ignited a lot of questions and discussion as it was still going. Topics throughout the night ranged from community (why we join them, how to run them), whether language used influences who attends the event more than any cultural influence (i.e. why an event like PauseTalk tends to be expat/foreigner heavy), some takes on fashion in the city, and yes, good ol’ AI, which tends to be a recurring theme, with strong opinions on both sides of the debate on its use. As one of the topics touched on filmmaking, and more specifically, a few in attendance had participated in the recent 48-hour Film Project, we capped it off with an impromptu viewing of the short they had produced (“The Greatest Show-Off”), which ended up winning the top prize.

What’s next? As I had shared last time, I am still planning on producing a zine to commemorate the upcoming Vol. 100, and the collecting of material for that (for those who would like to contribute a page) is likely to mostly happen in the WeChat group we have – but if you’ve ever attended a PauseTalk in the past (either in Tokyo or Shanghai) and would like to contribute something, do get in touch.

As for the next session, PauseTalk Vol. 100, that will normally happen sometime in December, and I’ll share the details here when they get confirmed. I would like to do something special for it (on top of the zine), so we’ll see what I come up with. In the meantime, the best way to stay updated is via the WeChat group (contact me to be added).

You’ll find archives of past events on the PauseTalk website, which includes recaps for each session.

PechaKucha Night

October was finally a break for us, following the two PechaKucha Nights we produced in September (Vol. 46 and Vol. 47), and our Vol. 48 is still set to happen on Thursday, November 13, this time at another new venue for us, Art Library in Jing’an (4th floor of the 889 Center on 889 Wanhangfu Road). After that, we’re already circling December 11 for our Vol. 49, with venue to be confirmed.

You can always check our Shanghai page on the official PechaKucha website to see the listings for the latest events.

FOTO5

The latest themes that we explored for FOTO5 were ADVERTISING, SQUARES (pictured above), LINES — and I did a little impromptu set one night on my way BACK HOME. Also, following a suggestion made by one of the group’s participants (Bora), I’m now inviting anyone to respond to a particular photo from the previous week’s set with a story/commentary/dream/whatever of 100 words or less. As an example, I wrote the following for a photo that had been shared by someone (Michael) during the SQUARES week.

Get up.

Go to work.

Ride the subway. Line 1. Or is that 8. I can’t keep track anymore. I just know I need to go.

Go to work.

Time is king. I need to optimize the time I take to go to work.

The clock guides me. All’s good, I’m on time. Time will not best me, I will best it.

Go to work.

I’ve arrived. On time.

It was for the following photo:

If you’re interested in participating in the FOTO5 photo club, contact me so I can add you to the group on WeChat.

Shanghai Design Pins  

Here are some of the latest Shanghai Design Pins  that were shared in the group.

Shanghai Design Pins   is a group on WeChat where we share design-related spots (and events) in Shanghai — contact me to be added.

One More Thing

I get my hair cut every 6-8 weeks, and I have a pretty traditional routine: I always go to a hair salon (called Chic) located inside the Takashimaya department store (where I use Japanese with my hairdresser, who is the manager of the shop), and then once my cut is done, I go up to the 7th floor to have a tonkatsu set at the Katsukara restaurant. It’s my traditional “cut & katsu,” if you will.

That’s it for this month — as we are now transitioning into my favorite season (fall) with the weather getting more cool and comfortable, here’s looking forward to the next few weeks of events, and hopefully work on the PauseTalk zine (I really need to get started on that).

For more on me, you can alway have a look at my personal website (where I share the newsletters in case you missed them) — I’ve been blogging since 1998 — or for lighter stuff (and lots of movie reviews) you can follow me on Bluesky.

Below, the list of participants:

• Alberto Sanseverino (Creative Director)
• Ano (AIGC Creator)
• Bill Glennie (Would-be Actor)
• Candy (Trade Assistant)
• Cliff Chiu (Game Designer)
• Dorothy Foo (Filmmaker/IP Creator)
• Gemma Li (Filmmaker/Director)
• George Hubert (The Man)
• Gordon Wang (AI & Digital)
• Jean Snow (Game Developer)
• Juliette Xue (E-commerce Marketing)
• Kat (Brand & Community)
• Kuan Tong (Voice Actor)
• Maria Razzhivina (Robot Lover)
• Mason (AIGC Creator)
• Olga (Marketing & Communications)
• Paul Copeland (Filmmaker)
• Tessie Wang (Pending New Role)
• Yegor (Phsyics Teacher)
• Yumeng Gai (Sculpter & Designer)

What’s next? As I had shared last time, I am still planning on producing a zine to commemorate the upcoming Vol. 100, and the collecting of material for that (for those who would like to contribute a page) is likely to mostly happen in the WeChat group we have – but if you’ve ever attended a PauseTalk in the past (either in Tokyo or Shanghai) and would like to contribute something, do get in touch.

As for the next session, PauseTalk Vol. 100, that will normally happen sometime in December, and I’ll share the details here when they get confirmed. I would like to do something special for it (on top of the zine), so we’ll see what I come up with. In the meantime, the best way to stay updated is via the WeChat group (contact me to be added).

Hi, this is Jean Snow, and welcome to this second edition of my M31 newsletter — which I’m creatively titling “October 2025.” I’ll be sharing the latest on all my activities, like I did last time — and I think there’s plenty new to share. In recent weeks I enjoyed visits to both Tokyo and my hometown of Moncton, New Brunswick in Canada, which both helped re-energize me.

What’s M31? It’s a name I used close to two decades ago as my sort of publishing imprint/company label for the activities I was doing while I lived in Tokyo, and I’ve decided to revive it. It’s simply inspired by my birthday of May 31. The logo you see above was designed by Ian Lynam, and is part of a set of 31 logos he created for me back in the late 2000s, which I’ve decided to start re-using for this newsletter.

All the activities I organize in Shanghai have dedicated groups in WeChat, where you’ll get the latest updates, and so please contact me to be added to any of them.

PauseTalk

Following a very enjoyable Vol. 98 at the end of August — which for the first time (I think) was attended solely by women (pictured above left) — I’m now readying the upcoming Vol. 99, which will take place on Thursday, October 23 at Bananafish Books. Based on the color scheme for the promo image, I’ll refer to it as the “Halloween” edition (let’s hope someone brings some treats — although tricks are welcome as well).

Also, as I mentioned in the previous newsletter, Vol. 100 is also just around the corner, likely to happen in December, and at the last event I talked a bit about what I’d like to do to commemorate the milestone. I want to make a zine, something that I will actually print out copies of, to be handed out to attendees. As for the content of the zine, I’d like to invite anyone who has attended a PauseTalk in the past to contribute a page — and this page can be made up of anything, whether imagery, photography, graphics, texts, etc. I’ll start working on this in the coming weeks, and will share more updates on the PauseTalk website (and on my blog).

You’ll find archives of past events on the PauseTalk website, which includes recaps for each session.

PechaKucha Night

We had a very busy September, with two PechaKucha Night events taking place, a first for the series in Shanghai. First, our Vol. 46 was held on Thursday, September 11 at Skyline Tower. I was unable to attend — and do my regular hosting duties — as it took place during my visit back home to Canada, but from all the feedback I got after the event, it was another terrific night of creative sharing. Then, we followed that up with our Vol. 47 (pictured above) on Tuesday, September 23 at the Shanghai West Bund Art Centre, as part of the S-Tron conference. This is the second year we are invited by S-Tron to organize a PechaKucha Night during their event, and it’s nice in that it allows us to offer free entry to the event.

What’s next? Our Vol. 48 is set for November 13, and we then have two big milestones for the series coming up. Our Vol. 49 (likely to be held in December) will be the 20th event George Lobo (my co-organizer) and I have produced since relaunching the series in 2023 (with Vol. 30), and then of course it will be our Vol. 50, which will happen in early 2026.

You can always check our Shanghai page on the official PechaKucha website to see the listings for the latest events.

FOTO5

Since the last edition of this newsletter, I launched the following themes: CHAOS, OUT OF PLACE, PATHS, PAINT, and TAPE (all links are to the posts I share on Bluesky). Pictured above, my contributions for the theme PAINT, which we did the week of September 22-28. For the OUT OF PLACE and PATHS sets, I shot them in Canada during my recent visit back home.

If you’re interested in participating in the FOTO5 photo club, contact me so I can add you to the group on WeChat.

Shanghai Design Pins

Here are some of the latest Shanghai Design Pins that were shared in the group.

Shanghai Design Pins  is a group on WeChat where we share design-related spots (and events) in Shanghai — contact me to be added.

One More Thing

Most Friday nights we organize a casual “happy hour” at the studio (I work at Ubisoft’s Shanghai studio), and that occasionally then expands to other spots in the city. Two weeks ago, after the studio drinks, some of us ended up hitting two spots in the Jing’an area: Bar Blanc, a cocktail bar I’d been curious about, and we then wandered to a nearby bar (also with a nice cocktail selection) called Zaishu Zaiye.

Pictured below from top left and then clockwise: the traditional “happy hour” spot at the studio, the scene at Bar Blanc, our cocktails at Zaishu Zaiye, the entrance to Zaishu Zaiye.

And that’s it for this month. I was initially planning on sending these out at the start of every month, but since the start of October is China’s “Golden Week” holiday, I decided to hold off a week. For more on me, you can alway have a look at my personal website (where I shared last month’s newsletter, in case you missed it) — I’ve been blogging since 1998 — or for lighter stuff (and lots of movie reviews) you can follow me on Bluesky.