Running up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics (August 8-24), Thirteen will be airing a number of documentaries about contemporary China (and a few about the Olympics). Some of them are also watchable online. See the listings and links here.

Broadcasts:

Saturday, July 19

China From the Inside: Shifting Nature, at 1pm
China is trying to feed 20 percent of the world’s population on 7 percent of the world’s arable land. A third of the world uses water from China’s rivers. But rapid industrialization and climate change have led to bad air, polluted rivers and drought. Environmental activists, Party officials, academics and scientists are in a daily struggle over the damage to nature in China.

Global Voices: Great Wall Across the Yangtze, at 2pm
In the heart of China, the largest peacetime evacuation in history is underway. Two million people are being forced to abandon their homes, land, ancient burial grounds and temples to facilitate the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. While the dam promises economic growth, it also poses risks. If it collapses, 10 million people could die. It’s an extraordinary sacrifice in the name of modernization.

Thursday, July 24

China From The Inside: Women of the Country, at 9pm
China’s women have always been under pressure: from men, from family, from work. Now more and more are under new pressure — from themselves — to take control of their lives; to get an education; to have a career; to marry for love. It’s a slow, difficult process, and it is changing China.

Saturday, July 26

Globe Trekker: Central China at 4pm.

Thursday, July 31

China From the Inside: Shifting Nature at 9pm.
China is trying to feed 20 percent of the world’s population on 7 percent of the world’s arable land. A third of the world uses water from China’s rivers. But rapid industrialization and climate change have led to bad air, polluted rivers and drought. Environmental activists, Party officials, academics and scientists are in a daily struggle over the damage to nature in China.

The Real Olympics: Death Or Glory at 10pm.
The first episode reveals how the ancient games have been appropriated and reinvented in the modern era by ideologues of all stripes and persuasions, including the Victorian upper classes and the Nazis. The program then uncovers the real story of these games in all the rich detail provided by ancient sources.

August TK!

Watch These Documentaries in Full, Online:

Frontline: China In The Red, originally aired 2003.
Filmed over the course of three turbulent years, “China in the Red” tells the stories of 10 Chinese individuals — factory workers, rural villagers, and a millionaire entrepreneur — caught up in China’s dramatic, ongoing effort to modernize its economy. Through their intimate personal stories, camera work capturing the unique feel of their cities and homes, and with a soundtrack that includes Chinese rock music reflecting the rawness and energy of a nation in great flux, “China in the Red” offers a view of China that is rarely seen in the West.

Frontline: Young And Restless In China, originally aired 2008.
An intimate look into the lives of nine young Chinese, coming of age in a society that’s moving at breakneck speed. Filmmaker Sue Williams made both this film and “China In The Red”.

Frontline/World: Jesus In China, segment originally aired 2008.