Olympic bosses defend faked ceremony song

[Aerdria]

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/270594.asp

This pretty much sums up the whole article here:

Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke became a celebrity in China after she "sang" a patriotic ballad in front of 91,000 people and a television audience of over one billion during last week's spectacular show.

But it later emerged the real voice belonged to chubby seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was deemed not attractive enough to go on stage, and that the switch was ordered by a politburo member of China's ruling Communist party.

Also, the footsteps fireworks were computer generated or pre-recorded for TV.

[Savaric]

If I didn't know better I would say they were communists! Capitalist wannabe communists, lol. Even worse.

It needs to be re-done. Shameful, even for China.

[Aristotle]

Kinda lame to tell some 7 year old "sorry, you aren't cute enough and you're too fat."

[Gesslar]

True, but it sounds like just the sort of thing that would happen in Hollywood. We don't typically get outraged that it happens on regular basis in our own entertainment industry.

Yes, scale seems bigger, much more visible as a result that it is The Olympics. But this spotlighting happens all the time to show a singular instance when in fact it is exceedingly common.

For example, the whole nation will be gripped by an outrageous murder, and all the media will be focussed on that one incident when actually, murders happen in the multiple digits every day which don't get any special notoriety in the media.

There is so much more wrong with China than swapping out one child for another on the basis of aesthetics and CGI'ing fireworks. For one, they are, as noted above, incredibly capitalist-minded while maintaining their communist stranglehold on their citizens. Which is incredibly ironic, because who is more capitalist, and opportunistic than the communist Chinese government?

[Kraxe]

I was so upset when I found out it was all faked. It was like Milli Vanilli all over again.

Still, the celeb opportunities for the chubby kid are enormous now. They can stick her on her own episode of eXtreme Olympic Makeover, liposuck that lard off, fix her teeth, give her a tan and make her look like a WASP.

I'll buy that for a dollar!

[Talsek]

Originally posted by Kraxe

I'll buy that for a dollar!

Now you can, sweet!

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by karahd
True, but it sounds like just the sort of thing that would happen in Hollywood. We don't typically get outraged that it happens on regular basis in our own entertainment industry.

Actually, I think we do get pretty outraged by this. Jessica Simpson's sister (sorry, she sucks too hard to be called by her own name) got owned for lip syncing on Saturday Night Live. Then there's the Milli Vanilli thing. I seem to recall Britney getting rocked for lip syncing at that recent MTV show.

But this is worse because of WHY the swapped the kids. The younger kid was not cute enough, so she got the axe. That's just despicable.

Originally posted by karahd

There is so much more wrong with China than swapping out one child for another on the basis of aesthetics and CGI'ing fireworks. For one, they are, as noted above, incredibly capitalist-minded while maintaining their communist stranglehold on their citizens. Which is incredibly ironic, because who is more capitalist, and opportunistic than the communist Chinese government?

Yes, it is very odd. Its all fine and good to give enough freedoms to generate cash for the boss man, but freedom of the press, speech, etc. well those can't be tolerated.

[Deryk]

Originally posted by Aristotle
...But this is worse because of WHY the swapped the kids. The younger kid was not cute enough, so she got the axe. That's just despicable....

I don't know about this. I think Karahd makes a good point about Hollywood. I mean, you don't see an ugly kid doing the Welch's Grape Juice commercial do you? And I know that little cutie wasn't the ONLY kid that auditioned for that part.

Commercial

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Deryk
I don't know about this. I think Karahd makes a good point about Hollywood. I mean, you don't see an ugly kid doing the Welch's Grape Juice commercial do you? And I know that little cutie wasn't the ONLY kid that auditioned for that part.

I'm struggling to see how that is in any way comparable.

Your Welch's example: a bunch of kids audition, one of them gets the job. That kid is the one they use for the commercial.

Olympics: a bunch of kids audition, one of them gets the job. She learns the song, records it, etc. Then they later decide she isn't cute enough, so they go find a new kid and put her on stage while playing the other kids voice. They present the show as if the kid on stage is the one singing.

Not similar at all. Not even close.

Why didn't they just pick a kid who had the combination of singing and cuteness from the audition stage, and go from there. That's what they would have done in Hollywood. When Hollywood gets caught faking/lip syncing a supposed live performance, they get shamed for it as well.

Find someone who sings good enough and is cute enough. Don't perpetrate a fraud.

[Jidoe]

It's funny. When I watched the ceremony and saw the girl, I thought to myself it must be lip-syncing (the Chinese would never jeoperdize the success of the ceremony with a small child). I guess that's why I wasn't overly surprised when I heard it was true.