Olympic Singer Fails China Cuteness Test
Girl With Pixie Smile Lip Synchs Voice Of 7-Year-Old Deemed Not Pretty Enough For Olympic Opener
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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, 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." (AP Photo/Xinhua)
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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.
"The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen," Chen said. "Lin Miaoke was the best in this. And Yang Peiyi's voice was the most outstanding."
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.
I can understand why they picked the prettier girl. They need to maintain a certain aesthetic beauty during the opening ceremonies.
Zhang Xinyi, 22, who works in marketing in BeijingPeiyi responded that just having her voice used for the opening ceremony was an honor.
Whether the move was unethical, or unfair to both girls, has become a hot topic among Chinese and is racing across the country's blogosphere.
"The organizers really messed up on this one," said Luo Shaoyang, 34, a retail worker in Beijing.
"This is like a voice-over for a cartoon character," Luo said. "Why couldn't they pick a kid who is both cute and a good singer? This damages the reputation of both kids for their future, especially the one lip-synching. Now everyone knows she's a fraud. Who cares if she's cute?"
Zhang Xinyi, 22, who works in marketing in Beijing, disagreed.
"I can understand why they picked the prettier girl. They need to maintain a certain aesthetic beauty during the opening ceremonies. This situation is not so bad, especially since it gives two people an opportunity to shine rather than just one."
Peiyi is a first-grader at the Primary School affiliated to Peking 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.
NBC also has augmented its Olympic coverage in the past to set the right mood. That fire in the studio fireplace during the 2002 Salt Lake Games? It was just a video.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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See all 145 CommentsPosted by fstop100
Who is "we"??? And what makes you think you''re so special?
Obviously, they haven''t seen our Lyle Lovett :-)
Posted by mike071067
They''ve still got Cuba.
If there''s anyone there who hasn''t defected from that Utopia yet.
Argue with that at peril of your sanity.
True, but the fireworks were not fake, they happened, but the angle was too wide for a camera shot, so remote cameras fed the widest ones for superimposition.
The ceremony was indeed one of the most breathtaking spectacles that this very jaded soul has ever seen. Britain had better hire the creators of this show, because they set a standard that will be extremely hard to match, let alone surpass. Too bad America chooses to short shrift a true work of artistry because of a warped xenophobia.
Spielberg should be kicking himself for snubbing this, it turned out to be far better than anything I have seen from him...
What does that say to this little girl!! That was cruel, and she will never forget this, for the rest of her life.
Then you agree with the Chinese, they let the best voice they could find be put with the cutest face they could find, to be a part of the best show they could stage, I don''t see anything wrong with that, as two girls are now famous and honored.
Watch "Monty Python''s the meaning of life, and listen to Terry Jones explain that the little girl singing "Every S*perm Is Sacred" actually sang off camera, as the girl you see had the correct look, or any of a number of American movies where a better singer voiced what you see another singing.
the BBC says they were faked. The air was too smoggy for good aerial fireworks video so the Olympic Ceremony officials fed canned pre-produced video to the TV networks
Aesthetic beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The girl with the voice should have been seen...it was her performance, not a drag show or lip synch contest. Let the other girl go into modeling. This sends a bad message to little girls that you have to look a certain way to succeed. It smells of lookism and discrimination.
China has no morals, they are a sham.
I know she was actually singing, but they are still saying she is ugly. That isn''t good. This is a child.
In may happen in AMERICAN movies, but this was live in front of millions of people.
This is the entertainment equivalent of athletes on performance enhancing substances.
It''s getting as fake as wrestling
Btw: whoever thinks a nine year is "pretty" needs some help anyway.
The real singing girl would have been just fine, and looked normal to me...
It''s only libs that feel duped, because they have no knowledge of military operations and only jumped on the band-wagon during the state of the union address, if they did have military knowledge the would have known the Iraqi invasion was regime change and WMD''s were just a bone we threw to the UN to gain a vote and additional support
it is true. the BBC showed both girls photos.
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Posted by andor3 at 04:02 PM
Hey, you''re right, they doped us.....the little be-otch even practiced lip synching to fool the viewers....I also read the firework footsteps were also faked and digitally enhanced
If you read Drudge Report webpage, you would have seen the other girl early today, there was nothing wrong with her except her teeth were not totally perfect, but so what
That shows the REAL singers face.
She is a very cute chubby faced little girl.
Shame on you china.
It''''s only libs that feel duped, because they have no knowledge of military operations and only jumped on the band-wagon during the state of the union address, if they did have military knowledge the would have known the Iraqi invasion was regime change and WMD''''s were just a bone we threw to the UN to gain a vote and additional support
Posted by Minuteman-5 at 04:26 PM : Aug 12, 2008
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This was almost word for word my reaction to a story about little girl singers.
Posted by DaVicar2 at 04:41 PM : Aug 12, 2008
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You didn''t fail MY test. You''re the cutest little Chinese girl I know!
I have been thinking about this. Here, in Canada, we aren''t as particular about what a person looks like. The actors or whatever, are not always "beautiful" people.
In a country full of "beautiful people", the not so beautiful are hard to find.:)
Alot like our baptist and repubs in general!
The Monkees didn''t play all their own instruments.
And Jennifer Beals didn''t do all of her own dancing in ''Flashdance'' either.
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