Unbelievable? I’d say it’s more symbolic of the Beijing Olympics than anything else China could possibly have done.

August 12, 2008 @ 11:35 pm | Comment

Omgsh…I can’t believe my eyes. I mean come on now China. First off that other
little girl is the perfect representation for China. What are they thinking???
The FAKE one looks like a character out of………not even a movie flick. Even more “photogenic” then a character from the movie.

I have to start making my scrap book now. I mean come on there is nothing wrong with her. Also the fake girl seems to look like if she had brces on from the color of her gums.

Also please downvert the webpage. I am only able to post since I am doing it from public computer.

August 13, 2008 @ 12:19 am | Comment

funny, i did get the feeling that she wasn’t actually singing when i saw it on tv…no wonder…

August 13, 2008 @ 1:13 am | Comment

Yao Ming ain’t no beauty queen! But then again he is worth millions:P

August 13, 2008 @ 2:52 am | Comment

Showbiz is showbiz, unfortunately. I’m more worried about the fact that a member of the Politburo sees the dental work of a child as a pressing matter of national importance. Don’t these guys have slightly better things to do…like manage a colossus of a country? I know the Olympics is image event de rigueur of the current Chinese political calendar, but even so this is pushing the boundaries of it all slightly closer to the edge of ludicrous.

August 13, 2008 @ 2:54 am | Comment

If the authorities are going to demolish God-knows how many homes and historical areas of Beijing for sake of appearances, why wouldn’t they swap in a “more” photogenic child for the opening ceremony?

August 13, 2008 @ 5:31 am | Comment

At least the officials have been upfront about this, along with the computer-generated fireworks. But a cynic would say that they didn’t have any alternative. Sooner or later the truth would have come out anyway, and if people hear about it first from the organizers rather than having a reporter or blogger dig it up by themselves it won’t look so bad.

The little girl’s singing (along with Sarah Brightman and Liu Huan) was the best part of the opening ceremony for me. If Yang Peiyi could sing that well I’m sure she could have done just as well for the opening ceremony as Lin Miaoke. The Olympics are after all about performance, they’re not a beauty contest.

August 13, 2008 @ 7:34 am | Comment

They’ll never get it; they lose more credibility by pulling these stunts than any perceived aesthetic gain.

The first commenter was right – this story is a perfect analogy of Beijing’s approach to the Games.

August 13, 2008 @ 11:02 am | Comment

this is not at all surprising

plus the scoring in all the recent events. China gets the benefit, just like it was before with the “East German: judge

August 13, 2008 @ 12:22 pm | Comment

[Oracle Bones is one determined troll – he has infected nearly every thread with cut and pasted diatribes. If you’re so unimaginative you need to plagiarize, at least try to cover your tracks.]

August 13, 2008 @ 12:59 pm | Comment

What do you suppose they do with all of the video footage of foreigners shag’n hookers in Chinese hotel rooms?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSI8_PsV1QA

August 13, 2008 @ 1:37 pm | Comment

I think we are discussing about at cultural difference than anything else.

I always had the feeling that Chinese put more importance in appearance than on substance. They try to combine the best face and voice, not necessarily from the same person, to give the best appearance.
(Something to do with the concept of “save face”?)

In the “west” is the other way around, more on substance than on appearance. Face and voice must come from the same person, mo matter the imperfections (in voice of face)

To try to drive this issue towards the discussions about authoritarianism is off the mark.

August 13, 2008 @ 1:37 pm | Comment

no no you see it does not matter who the face and voice is. To denie your birthright is like deniying your self. This about lip-sinking and how a girl who looks just as good could have done no differ.

The FAKER is aying saying to people that while she might be aged she has trained for ages to get this good.

The truth person is saying I am only this years old I have the vioce of hope insdie of me. I would rather a innocent girl instead of some future derailment.

This is like real real real world wrost. Like where you watch a Japanese movie but the characters does not look 1% Japanese. Or they might be too old. This case it is a like super real.

One backslap to Mother China’s pride in her children.

About westnern people. *Europeans just look ugly even as kids they make everything look ugly that they do. That and Relgion just takes the joy out of anything.

* I don’t mean thet literrally, but you know what I am talking about.

August 13, 2008 @ 5:21 pm | Comment

BBC reports that stories on this have disappeared from parts of the Chinese media:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7558140.stm

BBC staff in Beijing found that references to the story had been removed from the Beijing Radio website on Wednesday.

The story was similarly absent from other major news sites, including the China Daily and Xinhua sites – suggesting that Chinese authorities are indeed uncomfortable with the story.

Chinese media and websites are policed by the central government, which has frequently censored access to content deemed unflattering or counter to the national interest.

But the story had not been totally expunged from the web, with extensive coverage still remaining on sites such as the Chinese commercial web portal sina.com.

August 13, 2008 @ 8:44 pm | Comment

Typical, typical to save face.

August 14, 2008 @ 6:32 am | Comment

The Potemkin Olympics?

August 14, 2008 @ 10:30 am | Comment

what, all china defenders died out? I can see this place is finally “harmonious” now LOL [If you feel the need to protect your anonymity, at least limit yourself to one screen name, thanks. The management.]

August 14, 2008 @ 12:44 pm | Comment

Chinese may not be aware but this kind of issue has some history in the west. There was a song dance duo Milli Vanilli who had a hit song and then it was found out that they only danced and pretended to sing and that others had actually sang for the recording of the record. Once this was discovered they were ostracized and their careers ended. Also others like Madonna have been criticised for lip synching in live concerts. Most westerners would rather see a girl with uneven teeth sing for real.

I imagine Zhang Yimou must have suffered through many similar suggested changes from the Technocrat CCP producers of his extravaganza and imagine he must have argued against other ideas that may have been more ludicrious.

August 15, 2008 @ 5:12 am | Comment

[If you feel the need to protect your anonymity, at least limit yourself to one screen name, thanks. The management.]

Did you just make up that rule or what?

Did I touch some nerves? LOL no need to put on that long face, this is what you wanted isn’t it, a hamrmonious universal china bashing heaven for unhappy expats…look at who’s left, not_sinophile, nanhe…congratulations! your dream came true.

You dont know why I had to use a different handle? looks like you have banned too many chinese posters you dont even remmember urself LOL.

Now you can delete this one too, and ban this handle, like you ‘ve done hundreds of times, and continue to preach freedom of speech to us brainwashed chinese.

August 15, 2008 @ 10:26 am | Comment

Obviously it is a shame to replace someone who has a beautiful voice with a lip syncer, but that’s the reality of how people react. Many people predominantly are very superficial and thus politicians (celebrities are a given) will do what it takes to make sure they are seen in a better light in order to stem any potential negative wisecracks.

Why else do you see current American politicians running for office wearing American flag pins? They get ridiculed otherwise…

August 15, 2008 @ 12:22 pm | Comment

This is why inferior, dirty, weak China will never produce a Luciano Pavarotti, Barry White or Aretha Franklin.

China should be torn to pieces and burned to ashes. What a waste of real estate and resources.

August 15, 2008 @ 1:57 pm | Comment

the ethnic minority kids weren’t really from ethnic minorities either

http://tinyurl.com/5z2tlb

August 15, 2008 @ 5:49 pm | Comment

Rubbish, of course she new that it was going to be a lip sync job, they’ve been rehearsing it for months. Underage gymnasts, lip syncing nippers, fake 50 nationality kids?

At least Dashan was funny, he marched past at the head of the Canadian team, with his flies undone!!

August 16, 2008 @ 12:57 am | Comment

Lol, Dashan is SUCH a dork.

August 16, 2008 @ 11:49 am | Comment