Thurston Moore with Sonic Youth, performing in Beijing tonight (Monday). Opening act should have been Carsick Cars, a local punk trio who idolize the seminal alternative rock band from New York but they were suddenly cancelled. The rumor was that someone had told Beijing cultural authorities that Carsick Cars once performed in a "Free Tibet" concert, but 1) I couldn't get this alleged reason for the sudden cancellation of Carsick Cars on the record 2) we don't have any evidence to suggest the ostensible reason is accurate. The irony is that the Chinese band is actually apolitical while Sonic Youth performed in a Free Tibet concert years ago, a source said.





The crowd was young and arty, and very moshy. Have video of the crowd demanding Carsick Cars but don't know how to load it. Moore dedicated one of his songs to Carsick Cars, saying only that the issue was "beyond our control."

Have recently written about the rising divorce rate in China, as women become increasingly financially independent and as the barriers to divorce slowly fall away.

Here's Shu Xin, founder of a Shanghai-based divorce and marriage counseling center, which has a website that has 1 million registered users. Customers who want a session with Shu have to pay $105 an hour or up to $658 a day. He says business is booming.