Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Way to go, China!

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Apparently, the opening ceremonies featured a memorable solo sung by a nine year old girl, Lin Miaoke, in front of an estimated audience of a billion people. Good for her.

One small problem though--- The NYTimes reports that her voice was dubbed and the voice used was actually one of a seven year old girl, Yang Peiyi.

Here’s a picture of the two girls from the article with seven year old Yang Peiyi on the left and nine year old Lin Miaoke on the right:

And here’s the money quote from the article:

“The reason was for the national interest,” explained Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies, who revealed the deception during a Sunday radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression.”

I’m trying to figure out why Lin Miaoke is flawless. More importantly, I’m trying to figure out why Yang Peiyi is not.

I imagine this conversation in Yang Peiyi’s home:

YP: Mom, if my singing was the best, why didn’t they let me perform in front of the world?

Mom: Because you don’t look good enough, precious.

And this conversation in Lin Miaoke’s home:

LM: Mom, if they wanted me to sing in front of the world, why did they use another girl’s voice?

Mom: Because she sings better than you. But you look flawless, sweetie, and that’s the important thing!

Lesson learned by both girls, I guess.

Way to emotionally scar two beautiful young girls (and who knows how many more when this story got out) so that you could put up a good show, China.

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4 comments:

Unknown said...

Agreed, though western pop-culture isn't any better. Unless anyone thinks Britney or Jessica are going to be having any big release parties in 2020.

Anonymoustache said...

True. I didn't intend to imply that China was unique in this attitude. India has a sad history of oppressing and objectifying women, as does much of the west. Just that China was given this chance to showcase itself to the world and .... well nothing changed, really.

Anonymous said...

But gosh- this isn't the only odd thing that marred the opening ceremony... soldiers carrying the olympic flag??? the drummers were supposedly also soldiers... and that amazing huge moving screen was being carried by people down below... who did this for several straight hours...

and what about the rest of the competition... kids trained to do gymnastics since the age of 3, allegedly competing underage at 13. ...I'm sure this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

Anonymoustache said...

Agreed drdrA.
The "take the kids away from their homes at 3 and put them in camps for the next decade so that they can win a medal" thing qualifies as some serious child abuse, no?