This time attention is focussed on the sweet pigtailed girl in red dress (Lin Miaoke, 林妙可) who sang at the opening. During the performance, Lin Miaoke lip-synched the song "Ode to the Motherland". The voice of the song was in fact from a 7-year-old girl called Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜).
Yang Peiyi was replaced by Lin Miaoke who mimed "Ode to the Motherland" as her face was "not suitable" for the Olympics opening ceremony
When nine-year-old Lin Miaoke launched into Ode to the Motherland at the Olympic opening ceremony, she became an instant star.Chen Qigang (陈其钢), the event's general music designer, explained to a Beijing radio station,
"Tiny singer wins heart of nation," China Daily sighed; "Little girl sings, impresses the world," gushed another headline, perhaps in reference to Lin's appearance on the front of the New York Times. Countless articles lauded the girl in the red dress who "lent her voice" to the occasion.
But now it emerges that Lin lent someone else's voice, following high-level discussions - which included a member of the Politburo - on the relative photogenicity of small children.
The recording to which Lin mouthed along on Friday was by the even younger Yang Peiyi. It seems that Yang's uneven teeth, while unremarkable in a seven-year-old, were considered potentially damaging to China's international image.
This is in the national interest. It is the image of our national music, national culture. Especially the entrance of our national flag; this is an extremely important, extremely serious matter. We made the decision that the voice we would use was Yang Peiyi's. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression. Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in the aspect of voice, Yang Peiyi is flawless.Click here to read the translated experts from the interview with Chen Qigang.
Other links:
- Olympic opening uses girl's voice, not face
- Beijing Olympics: Faking scandal over girl who 'sang' in opening ceremony
- Olympic child singing star revealed as fake
- Olympic opening song uses Chinese girl's voice, but says her face was 'not suitable'
- Another Olympic Secret: Who Was Actually Singing as the National Flag Entered the Stadium?
Understandable. It's OK as long as Sarah Brightman didn't lip sync on that day.
ReplyDeletewow, everyone is bent on trying to make China look bad at all costs.
ReplyDeleteits not like we wouldnt have done these things in the US if we were to host the Olympic Games, especially here where image is everything.
Give credit to the Chinese for what they have done, its a spectacle, a show, a presentation.
Matt - Seattle, WA
China is trying to look perfect to the world by putting a young beautiful child that suppose to represent their country and their people. I think they feel shame how their "real people" look. I guess they are use to covering up all the other things that goes on in their country that they don't want the rest of the world to see or know.
ReplyDeleteMatt in Seattle, the US would have just found someone who could sing and was attractive, instead of hiring an attractive girl to lip-sync and giving credit where it wasn't due. "...may be only 9 years old, but she's well on her way to becoming a star." Yeah, forget the fact that it was actually a 7-year old girl who sang the song and didn't get any credit for it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that when Yang Peiyi finally gets her day in the sun, she'll be just as gracious as she was when these people tried to push her down because she wasn't "cute enough".
quote from Matt in Seattle:
ReplyDelete"wow, everyone is bent on trying to make China look bad at all costs."
well, it seems like China is doing that themselves.
How can anyone from a Western culture be surprised at this? How often do you see not beautiful people in the Western pop media? How often do you see not cute children in children advertisements and commercials? Maybe the Chinese government felt they had to use a "flawless" little girl because Western pop media portrays the Western race as "flawless".
ReplyDeleteIt's not about CUTEness, it's about the Politburo. Obviously a China official used power play to get his daughter up on stage.
ReplyDeleteAnyone ever heard of Millie Vanillie or however you spell it! :)
ReplyDeleteSorry, I think it was a statement "Fake as heck - the real kid isn't good enough".
Yes, this happens everywhere... doesn't make it right.
AT LEAST give the real kid the credit publicly before they were *found out*.
BTW I don't care if it's China or any other country. It says they are embarrassed of their own. It wasn't what they wanted to show... etc. etc. etc.
I'm over it-not my issue, but the kid who sung it for real might not be. That's what matters.
:)
So ridiculous. In all China's efforts to look "perfect" they just end up embarrassing themselves.
ReplyDelete