This week we are showing the fine Chinese film "Dam Street." It runs a little bit short of our usual Music and Culture slot, so I was asked to put together a special music block geared specifically to follow the film. At first glance, the list of videos might seem to be a mixed bag.  But actually, I decided to pick videos that enhanced the ambience of the film.  I decided that "Longing" fit the mood, and so I chose "Nuahulwana", one of the most beautiful and haunting of songs, in which a lover is admonished not to go out to find love at the local bars, like a "night bird." I followed that with the brooding and surreal "O Labarinto Parado" by the Portuguese group Madredeus. China's Sa DingDing gives us a fantasy of a former life, one at the pinnacle of an ancient civilization now long dead, and in a field of ice, Uzbekistan's Sevara Nazarkhan sings a poem written about the lights of a beautiful, distant city.  We end with Patrick Bruell's rueful reminiscence of puppy love in Tunisia, at "Café de Delices."

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.