The controversial Olympics in Beijing are about to launch, and it's no coincidence that Link TV has rolled out several eye (and ear) opening  programs for this week. China is an endlessly fascinating subject, and our programming department has chosen some compelling stuff for you. Mosuo Song Journey is a loving look at a remote part of China that is trying to adapt to an influx of tourism. The area is known for its matriarchal culture and its passionate songs, but "progress" is taking its toll. For a look to the past, Yang Ban Xi resurrects the Maoist years with some pure propaganda that took the form of highly entertaining musicals. Moving from music into the movies, we present an encore presentation from our first season of Cinemondo, with a harrowing tale of betrayal in Beijing in the film Stolen Life – a recent Tribeca Film Festival winner for Best Narrative Feature. And while I'm touting our cultural programming, don't forget our series Chinese Restaurants which is a tasty look at how Chinese culture survives in diaspora, through the lens of one of its most well known aspects: food.

We had some time to fill between the end of Blind Shaft this week's Cinemondo offering, and the next program. I love this sort of challenge; it's a programmer's delight to sequence videos that relate to a theme.  So after Blind Shaft's dark tale of greed you can settle back for a sampling of videos about our relationship to money: Aterciopelados' sarcastic Don Dinero makes fun of our obsession with the stuff. Control Machete delivers a cautionary tale about gambling, and Bisso Na Bisso gives us a whimsical - yes, it's possible -look at corruption. Taiwan's Kou Chou Ching rap about the perils of runaway capitalism in China, and we close with a sweet song about generosity, from Davy Sicard. Hey, we couldn't leave you depressed, could we?

And if you're having trouble making out this lyrics of this week's video premiere, Hard Times of Old England Retold, we've got them here for you:

Hard Times of Old England Retold

For 5 generations my family have farmed
By hoofs and by tractor by hoe and by hand
But that won't stave off the bank's last demand
Singing all the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.

Time was I could sell what I grew at the shop,
Then Tesco turned up all of that had to stop
Now I can't make a living out of my crop
Singing all the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.

More and more of our village gets sold every day
To folks from the city who're happy to pay
For a holiday cottage to stay empty all day
Singing all the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.

The countryside alliance expects I suppose
My support when they march down
To bloody Blair's nose
But they said not a word when our post office closed
Singing all the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.

The hedgerows my grandfather tended are gone
And with it the Lapwing and the Cornquake's sad song
I fear I'll be carrying on before long
Singing all the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.

And now to conclude and to finish my song
Let’s hope that these hard times they will not last long
And I may soon have occasion to alter my song and sing
All the Good Times of Old England
In Old England very good times.

This week we have a wonderful film on Cinemondo, called Vanaja. Why am I mentioning this on our world music page? It's because Vanaja has some wonderful music and dance in it. It opens up with an almost extinct art form, called Burra Katha, a kind of storytelling entertainment once common in Andhra Pradesh, where the movie was filmed. As the story progresses, the main character, a 14 year old girl takes up Kuchipudi  dancing, and I personally think this stuff is utterly mesmerizing. The precision of each movement, as it relates to the complexities of the musical accompaniment is a pleasure to watch. There are many different kinds of Indian dance (as demonstrated by the video by Sona Mohapatra "Ishq Nachaya" and Vanaja gives us an opportunity to gain insight into one of them - and it's a great story, too!