Beijing Olympic Scandal Over Lip Synching Girl
Posted on August 12, 2008 at 9:42 am (PST)
The Chinese government is being criticized for replacing a Chinese girl at the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing with another Chinese girl who was better looking, and for mixing in CGI fireworks with real fireworks.
Lin Miaoke (left) lip-synched at the opening ceremony over the voice of Yang Peiyi (right), who was considered visually unsuitable to appear herself because of her buck teeth, so only her voice was used. The Chinese rep said:
"The main consideration was the national interest. The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression. In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team."
"We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and to be open with this explanation. We should all understand it like this, it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture."
"Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter."
"So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi, after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team’s view, all together."
Yang Peiyi is said to have reacted well to the disappointment. Peiyi said:
"I am proud to have been chosen to sing at all."
That is what a report quoted the little girl as saying, but we all know she would rather have been onstage herself.
In China, putting on the best face, is the best way to save face.
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I am disappointed in the media for blowing this out of perportion. This is China’s one chance to show the world that it is not a bad place that it has been made out to be. Of course China has a bad rap and deserviedly so but they are making every effort to show the world that they want to change. Sure China isn’t America and sure it is still quite backwards from the rest of the world but do you think the media would go easy on China had these efforts have not been taken? The Chinese athaletes and people may not share the same luxaries and freeoms which we take for granted but neither does the other 75% of the world. Everyone is trying their best and is trying to put their best face forward. So why all the attacks? The bad press will always be there. But for the 14 days that is the Olympics let them have their moment. It was a decision made by all participants that this was for the country and not individual gain. I’m sure the little girls feelings were hurt. Who wouldn’t. But at the same time, the media has gone on a blitz saying she is too ugly. Ugly is a harsh word to use. Her not being able to sing the song live may have hurt her feelings but it’s the media’s attack which has left and indelible mark on her young ego.
Comment by Cory — August 15, 2008 #
Who cares what China does. If the “ugly” girl had a problem about singing the song while some “cute” girl gets to lip synch the song, then she could’ve chosen not to sing the song. No one forced her to sing the song, I’m sure. She’s not even ugly, by the way. For all you Americans out there bashing on Chinese people, you need to be honest with yourself. Would America chose an ugly little girl to sing at the Olympics? Probably not. They would probably pick some cute little girl that sings “ok” compared to an ugly little girl that sings great. China is giving the other girl a chance to let the world hear her voice. She can fix her teeth later.
Comment by Alyssa — August 14, 2008 #
this is wrong…. but man is that girl ugly though… WHEW! I can picture her grown up already and daddy don’t like.
Whats all this stuff about westerners being jelous of the chinese?
Poppycock!
I think we tend not to dream about living in a communist country…. thats overpopulated and polluted. That’s why I shall stick with Canada.
Comment by Cody — August 13, 2008 #
Whoever it was who decided on this didn’t care about hurting a little girl. She will never forget that for the rest of her life. God bless her. It’s difficult to live in a society that the value of people are measured by how they look and how much they earn.
Comment by yum — August 13, 2008 #
China is just telling everyone they believe appearance is more important than substance.
Comment by Debbie — August 13, 2008 #
talking about fake,America is the biggest fake country in the world,don’t blame china for having a perfect show,and of course you western have the right to jealous with china.
Comment by tony — August 12, 2008 #
LoL, Bixby mate I am ethnically chinese.
The point here is that this was a show. All around the world people enjoyed watching the ceremony. Which was the whole point.
You might as well have lambasted George Lucas for dubbing Ray Park’s lines for Darth Maul in Star Wars or Del Toro for dubbing in David Hyde Pierce’s voice for Abe Sapian in Hellboy.
The simple fact of the matter is that this pure China bashing.
Comment by JoJo — August 12, 2008 #
Jay: good call.
And “we all know” she would rather have been ontage herself? You don’t know Chinese culture very well.
Comment by bixby — August 12, 2008 #
@jay
This isn’t some petty competition to appear on a magazine cover. This is the OLYMPICS for crying out loud. I’m a Chinese American and this incident is extremely embarrassing. How do you think that seven-year old girl feels that she was too ugly to sing at the Olympics despite her talent. The problem with Chinese culture is that they take everything so seriously that they miss out on the human component of the Olympics which is what its all about.
Comment by Tony — August 12, 2008 #
Does China realize they did more to ruin their national image by replacing the girl with the good voice because she wasn’t “pretty” enough than they gained by using the pretty little girl?
I thought the West had a monopoly on obsessing over appearances. Apparently I was wrong.
Comment by Gerry — August 12, 2008 #