A fan shares video of his first paid show in China: a performance by Eli Sweet and a house dancer at a club in Guiyang, Guizhou province.

A short video of American transplant Eli Sweet and Chinese rapper Coffee, performing and hanging out.

The energetic rapper Eli Stone, originally from Atlanta, enthuses about his life in China:
“One of the best things about living in China is there’s always a possibility that you’re gonna run into something today that you have never seen in your entire life. Today, I went to pick up my pants from the guy who had sewn them up, and he was sitting there on the street, and he had a bucket full of eels, and one by one he was taking their head and nailing it to a board, and then fileting it with an exacto knife. That’s something I’d never seen in my entire life.”

“‘Cui Jian has always been right,’ say his fans. Businesswomen wearing pearl necklaces, just the same as taxi drivers with Buddha figurines and bare chests, plus umpteen more, surprisingly, could all be Cui Jian’s children.”

As the greatest symbol of the “nothing” generation, Cui Jian still bottles a rebellious spirit for his fans, even if it sells next to cans and drafts these days.

The final 3 segments of this broadcast focus on China: Air pollution in Beijing; the traditional Chinese sport Wushu; and Abigail Washburn, an American banjo player with a love for China, slated to play for the Beijing Olympics this week.

Atom, the female drummer for Beijing band Hedgehog, talks about being a girl in a band:

“I think any girl who plays in a band is special… I started to like rock ‘n’ roll in college because Xiao Wu, the drummer of Queen Sea Big Shark introduced me to some really good stuff. Rock ‘n’ roll is like looking at yourself in a mirror — you see who you are…
My father wants me to be famous overnight like the ‘Super Girls.’ But I think the Super Girls add nothing to our culture at all. They’re just a fad, people without good music becoming famous.”

A short clip from Ed Peto’s blog:

“In the meantime I’ll leave you with this phone video of an impromptu, al fresco Peking Opera session in Bei Hai Park, central Beijing.”

A sneak peek at a segment on rapper Wang Xiaolei, featured on PBS’s Frontline documentary “Young & Restless in China.”

“Seen from the streets, the new China is an unforgiving place. Rapper Wang Xiaolei uses his music to express a dark view of China’s new boomtimes.”

Hip hop artist Wang Xiaolei, featured on PBS’s Frontline documentary Young & Restless in China:

“I asked Wang what happened to the sharp social commentary in his earlier work…

‘It’s hard to say. Sometimes when I was younger, I’d feel angry and say so, and afterwards I’d forget about it. If you’re standing in the street, you can see many things that can make you angry. But if you don’t think about it too much, it’s ok. There’s a Buddhist poem i like, that goes, ‘The heart of a human is like a clear mirror. You must always remember to wipe it, and not let dirt curb its bright nature.’ Actually, in the past half year, I’ve realized that much of the anger I felt was just created by myself.’”

The band African China performs their song “Crisis” in a music video.