Viewers were outraged enough to register some annoyance at the revelation that the fantastic fireworks for the Olympics Opening ceremony were pre-recorded and added in. But Chinese officials have taken the fakery to new levels, with their using a lip-synching ‘pretty model’ Lin Miaoke aged 9 (in the red dress) to move her lips to the pre-recorded voice of 7 year old Yang Peiyi. According to the show’s musical designer Chen Qigang:
"We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and
to be open with this explanation," he said. "We should all
understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a
question of the image of our national music, our national culture."Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely
important, an extremely serious matter."So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang
Peiyi – after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect
show, in our team’s view, all together."
Never mind that the real singer was as cute a little kid as any. Her just-growing-in milk teeth were enough to disqualify her from being on stage singing the anthem. Is this a cultural issue that shows Chinese to be obsessed with image over substance, or is there something else to Chen ‘feeling forced’ to set the record straight? I wonder if there was political pressure to use the lip-synching kid and the only way in which he could assuage his guilty conscience at having to do so was to give praise where it was due for the singing performance.
Accidental Blogger 