One has the voice, the other gets the glory

[jimpeel]

It seems that a highly placed Chinese official didn't like the looks of the child who was going to sing the song "Ode to the Motherland" so they had a better looking girl lipsync the song.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/olympics/view/olympic-opening-uses-girls-voice-not-face

Olympic opening uses girl's voice, not face
Wednesday 13th August, 07:11 AM JST

BEIJING —
One little girl had the looks. The other had the voice.

So in a last-minute move demanded by one of China’s highest officials, the two were put together for the Olympic opening ceremony, with one lip-synching “Ode to the Motherland” over the other’s singing.

The real singer, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth, wasn’t good looking enough for the ceremony, its chief music director told state-owned Beijing Radio.

So the pigtailed Lin Miaoke, a veteran of television ads, mouthed the words with a pixie smile for a stadium of 91,000 and a worldwide TV audience. “I felt so beautiful in my red dress,” the tiny 9-year-old told the China Daily newspaper.

Peiyi later told China Central Television that just having her voice used was an honor.

It was the latest example of the lengths the image-obsessed China is taking to create a perfect Summer Games.

In a brief phone interview with AP Television News on Tuesday night, the music director, Chen Qigang, said he spoke about the switch with Beijing Radio “to come out with the truth.”

“The little girl is a magnificent singer,” Chen said. “She doesn’t deserve to be hidden.” He said the ceremony’s director, film director Zhang Yimou, knew of the change. He declined to speak further about it.

China has been eager to present a flawless Olympics face to the world, shooing thousands of migrant workers from the city and shutting down any sign of protest.

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

A member of China’s Politburo asked for the last-minute change during a live rehearsal shortly before the ceremony, Chen said in the Beijing Radio interview, posted online Sunday night. He didn’t name the official.

During the live rehearsal, the Politburo member said Miaoke’s voice “must change,” Chen said.

“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.”

“The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest,” Chen added.

[more]

 

[chcr]

I honestly don't get the big deal. Stuff like this happens all the time. Everywhere.

 

[Nixy]

That's not what the Olympics are supposed to be about. It's sad when this kind of stuff happens at an event like the Olympic Games. I am thoroughly unimpressed with these Olympic Games and the way they're being run. I can only hope that Canada will do better in 2010. I will be attending so I'll let y'all know.

 

[jimpeel]

I honestly don't get the big deal. Stuff like this happens all the time. Everywhere.

No big deal? Ask Milli Vanilli.

Their name is now a SLANG TERM for something that is fake.

It is the attitude of appearance over talent that is bad; and the one girl has to suffer even though she was the true talent behind the performance.

 

[tonksy]

CNN ran this story. Guess which girl they showed? You had to click to the second pic to see the real girl. It's rampant everywhere Sucks though.

 

[chcr]

That's not what the Olympics are supposed to be about. It's sad when this kind of stuff happens at an event like the Olympic Games. I am thoroughly unimpressed with these Olympic Games and the way they're being run. I can only hope that Canada will do better in 2010. I will be attending so I'll let y'all know.

The problem is that it's not really part of the Olympics, it's part of the media EVENT that precedes the Olympics. I agree with you, it's not what the Olympics should be about but as a piece of overblown, self-aggrandizing entertainment (which is what it really was) it was pretty much a standard practice. I'd like to see a small torch ceremony and the parade of athletes and that would do me fine. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in. I wonder what useful things all that money might have been spent on. I wonder every time.

Edit: Note that I only watch the aforementioned parts of the opening ceremonies myself.

 

[jimpeel]

Here is the crux of the matter. The girl who lipsynched the song's father on his daughter's new found fame:

Her father, Lin Hui, told China Daily he learned Miaoke would be “singing” only 15 minutes before the opening ceremony began.

Lin “still cannot believe his daughter has become an international singing sensation,” the report said.

SHE DIDN'T SING, LIN! SHE MOVED HER MOUTH.

 

[chcr]

No big deal? Ask Milli Vanilli.

Their name is now a SLANG TERM for something that is fake.

It is the attitude of appearance over talent that is bad; and the one girl has to suffer even though she was the true talent behind the performance.

The thing Milli Vanilli got called on was accepting an award for a performance they didn't really give. The lip syncing wasn't the big deal, although I understand that that's what most people believe. I agree about the attitude, but the popular media whining about it is laughable at best. As I say, it's a standard practice anymore. I don't necessarily agree with it or like it but the self-righteous indignation in the media is just stupid. Most current pop icons are a direct result of the attitude of style over substance. The exceptions are rare indeed.

 

[paul_valaru]

It's just wrong, olympics is about sportsmanship and fairplay

 

[jimpeel]

I am a designer by trade; and I have had others take credit for my ideas in the past. I got over it but that did not make it right.

 

[chcr]

It's just wrong, olympics is about sportsmanship and fairplay

It wasn't really part of the Olympics. What part of it was unsportsmanlike?

Let's talk about the Chinese women's gymnastic team. Sixteen my hairy, white ass.

I am a designer by trade; and I have had others take credit for my ideas in the past. I got over it but that did not make it right.

Now you're comparing apples and oranges.

As an aside, a month from now no one will remember this at all.

 

[paul_valaru]

It wasn't really part of the Olympics. What part of it was unsportsmanlike?

Let's talk about the Chinese women's gymnastic team. Sixteen my hairy, white ass.

It wasn't in the spirit of the olympics, how is that?

and 16, more like 12.

 

[Gonz]

There have been a number of times that they've cheated. They used CGI in the opening ceremonies. They used tape in the opening ceremonies. They're cheating with their gymnasts (at least).

Not a good example (are we really surprised)

 

[paul_valaru]

They're cheating with their gymnasts (at least).

we THINK, no proof....yet