Olympic opening uses girl's voice, not face

jaylorjepp

FIRE・SOUL・LOVE
Dec 4, 2007
461
2
By The Associated Press
Posted Tuesday, August 12, 2008 5:23 AM ET

BEIJING (AP) - A 7-year-old Chinese girl's face was "not suitable" for the Olympics Opening Ceremony, so another little girl with a pixie smile lip-synched "Ode to the Motherland" -- the latest example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Games.

A member of China's Politburo asked for the last-minute change to match one girl's face with another's voice, the ceremony's chief music director, Chen Qigang, said in an interview with Beijing Radio.

"The audience will understand that it's in the national interest," Chen said in a video of the interview posted online Sunday night.

The news follows reports that some footage of the fireworks exploding across China's capital during the ceremony was digitally inserted into television coverage, apparently over concerns that not all of the 29 blasts could be captured on camera.

China has been eager to present a flawless Olympics image to the world, shooing migrant workers and so-called petitioners who come to the central government with grievances from the city and shutting down any sign of protest.

The country's quest for perfection apparently includes its children.

Lin Miaoke's performance Friday night, like the ceremony itself, was an immediate hit. "Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with patriotic song," the China Daily newspaper headline said Tuesday.

But the real voice behind the tiny, pigtailed girl in the red dress who wowed 91,000 spectators at the National Stadium on opening night really belonged to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi. Her looks apparently failed the cuteness test with officials organizing the ceremony, but Chen said her voice was judged the most beautiful.

During a live rehearsal soon before the ceremony, the Politburo member said Miaoke's voice "must change," Chen said in the radio interview. He didn't name the official.

So Peiyi's voice was matched with Miaoke's face.

"We had to make that choice. It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi," Chen told Beijing Radio. "We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance."

Chen couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

A photo of Peiyi posted Tuesday on popular Web site Sina.com shows a smiling girl with bangs and crooked teeth. A China News Service story posted with the photo says a China Central Television reporter asked Peiyi whether she felt regret over the opening ceremony.

Peiyi responded that just having her voice used for the opening ceremony was an honor.

But some people were angry with the switch, according to the report. One blog posting said, "Fake singing is bad, to make a lip synch is worse." Another said, "Leave the last bit of innocence to the children."

Peiyi is a first-grader at the Primary School affiliated to Beijing University. Her tutor, Wang Liping, wrote in her blog that Peiyi is both cute and well-behaved, with a love for Peking opera.

"She doesn't like to show off. She's easygoing," Wang wrote. She and other school officials couldn't be reached Tuesday.

Miaoke, however, was a minor celebrity even before the opening ceremony. The third-grader appeared in a television ad last year with China's biggest gold medal hope, hurdling champion Liu Xiang, and she was in an Olympics ad just before Chinese New Year, China Daily reported.

Miaoke has her own blog, and one of the latest photos posted since the ceremony shows her looking up nervously at the ceremony's director, film director Zhang Yimou. "Giving the child encouragement," the caption says.

Her father, Lin Hui, told China Daily he learned Miaoke would be "singing" only 15 minutes before the opening ceremony began. The newspaper wrote Lin "still cannot believe his daughter has become an international singing sensation."

It was the second straight Olympics where the opening ceremony involved lip-synching.

Luciano Pavarotti's performance at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin was prerecorded. The maestro who conducted the aria, Leone Magiera, said earlier this year that the bitter cold made a live performance impossible for Pavarotti, who was in severe pain months before his cancer diagnosis. Pavarotti died in September 2007 at age 71.




attachment.php

AP Photo/Zhou Liang
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Lin Miaoke, a nine-year-old Chinese girl who performed at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on the day before, returns to the Xizhongjie Primary School of Dongcheng District in Beijing on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008. A 7-year-old Chinese girl's face was "not suitable" for the Olympics opening ceremony, so Lin lip-synched "Ode to the Motherland", the latest example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Summer Games.
 

gawkerman

New Member
Jul 20, 2008
28
0
Girls face not cute for opening ceremony?

Well there you have it! So obvious this polit bureau man :pissed: was very keen to have a cute face for the ceremony! Ha... Kind of strange for an old man to get involved with young girls faces .... ;-) hmmmmmm :lols:
 

Leechasd

Eye of The Beholder
Nov 16, 2006
257
0
Not strange in Nippon where senior porn members are the stars of any young/cute JAV girl.
 

downloadx

New Member
Mar 17, 2007
25
1
CUTE vs. cute

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/12/olympics2008.china1

Yes the girl on the left is cuter, but it really sends the wrong message when you parade this fact in front of billions of people.

There's nothing wrong with trying to choose someone by appearance, but that's not what they did here. They chose one girl and used her for her voice talent, but then refused to show her face and give credit to her. Her name wouldn't be known at all except they were caught in the act and forced to acknowledge her contribution.

They then used another girl who had no talent but the face. The fact that we're dealing with girls here is just going too far. It's not just a slap in the "face" to that one girl, but all girls who are not as cute as the chosen supermodel face. That's a pretty high standard when you consider the original girl was cute, just not international supermodel cute.

The problem isn't about choosing people by appearance for a performance - that's normal. It's about using a child for her talent but giving zero public credit to her because she's not cute enough, and not caring about how she's treated until it's exposed.

The Chinese have done so many things right on the Olympics, and these exceptions are just a sad reminder of what they've sacrificed for success. You can see it in their 14 year old gymnastics team (fake age), their pyrotechnics (fake footage), and their products (fake quality). These send the wrong reminder to the world about their old way of doing things. And it's a disservice to hard working Chinese in their own country, and the people who are building a new China.
 

supercxl

New Member
Aug 18, 2008
2
0
Chinese hope to show the perfect side to the whole world. It's growing and facing many problems. We should support it.
 

downloadx

New Member
Mar 17, 2007
25
1
Chinese hope to show the perfect side to the whole world. It's growing and facing many problems. We should support it.

This is true, and I'm not saying this is what China is all about - this is just one way of doing things I hope China can eventually move beyond. As I said, the Chinese have done so much right. To me, this is really about one girl and how she was treated by a system much bigger than her.
 

Gaiarth

Member
Jan 9, 2007
68
0
Obviously, this sort of thing can happen everywhere, but the reason it annoyed me in this particular case is that saying 'this girl just wasn't cute enough to be seen' seems to smack of bad sportsmanship. Which is what the Olympics are supposed to be about...
 

jakeweiq

Member
Aug 12, 2008
55
3
proud china ppl...

im a chinese too, but the attitude of china ppl puts me off

apparently they still think they r the center of the world?
 

arthurdent1

Member
Dec 19, 2006
31
10
Sorry, the Chinese government did the wrong thing. But they frequently do when it comes to truth and what is actually good for humans. Yep, I have an American view of human rights but it's really simple human decency that demands their government change. The actions they took before and during the Olympics, and continue to take against their own people are just plain wrong. The attitude that you should keep your mouth shut and let your home be bulldozed for the "good of China" is evil and should be punished. Oh yeah, trading with China doesn't actually help the rights of their people so let's stop trading. That idea is now proven a myth. Everyone knows what I'm talking about here so there's no point in continuing other than to say NO government should help the Chinese government (including the U.S. government) at all until it withers and dies. They, by all means, let's talk with the next government.
 

seiya1

Level80Cleaver
Feb 28, 2007
201
9
Go look up the new South Park episode "The China Problem" (came out last night). It has to do with the chinese and Cartman's plan to stop their supposed invasion of the US. Great episode as always. (Also has some very graphic images even for South Park standards)