Aug 12 2008
Lip Synching Singer in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies
7 year old Yang Peiyi was the real singer. 9 year old Lin Miaoke was the lip synch performer on the camera. She wowed the audiences, but it wasn’t even her singing in front of the Olympic crowd, Milli Vanilli in the form of two children.Two beautiful little girls were the joint performers, but apparently according to Chinese officials trying to create the “perfect” opening ceremony the real singer, Yang was not “cute” enough by their standards to stand in front of the television cameras and represent her country.
Chen Qigong a member of the politburo of China made the last-minute decision to replace Yang with Lin in the live performance commenting that the face and voice and grasp of the song must match. I guess being a man in power suddenly made him the ultimate judge of what is beauty and what is not.
What shallow message does this give both of those little girls not to mention the rest of the world? One has learned that her looks are a commodity to be used to promote a fake image, a lie. The other has learned that in spite of her gift of voice that her looks are more important than that gift, but for both of them it is done for the greater good, the national interest. How incredibly sad is that and whose greater good? Certainly not the image of the Olympics and now certainly not in the eyes of the world.
The Olympics are symbolically accepting of all people striving to do their best with what they have to offer, no matter who they are or where they come from OR what they look like.
In some native cultures to attempt to be perfect without admitting flaws is vanity and pride, a slap in the face of God. In their attempt to create a perfect image, they slapped him really hard with this but then again by doing this they showed that they are only human and flawed too. Too bad they had to do it using two innocent little girls as political pawns.
