Misblog

Originally Published August 13, 2008; Updated and Republished on November 13, 2008:

Some clown in China's Politburo decided that seven-year-old Yang Peiyi was too ugly to perform at the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony. The solution, steal Peiyi's beautiful singing and defraud an entire world audience by having nine-year-old Lin Miaoke look pretty while lip syncing to Peiyi’s rendition of Ode to the Motherland. The entire Politburo owes Peiyi and the world a gigantic apology!

Yang Peiyi

Peiyi must be invited to sing at the Beijing Olympic Closing Ceremony—she is plenty adorable and a hell of a lot more representative of the hard-working Chinese people¹!

If the Politburo wants all little Chinese girls to have straight teeth then put some dental clinics in rural China!

Web:

• UPDATED 11/13/2008 AFP, China mulls crackdown on lip-synching. Hey China it's Peiyi that was cheated and hurt, not only the public—how about publicly apologizing and compensating Peiyi for China's willingness to hurt this adorable little girl with such a beautiful voice!
• UPDATED 08/15/2008 WP, Revelation About Singer Leaves That Syncing Feeling
• NYT, In Grand Olympic Show, Some Sleight of Voice
• Bloomberg, Fake Fireworks, Lip-Syncher Used in Olympic Opening Ceremony
• AFP, Chinese media blackout on faked Olympic ceremony saga
• AP, Olympic opening uses girl's voice, not face

-----notes-----

1. Wonder if the Politburo clown thinks the incredibly talented Liu Huan or Sarah Brightman is attractive enough?

Maybe Olympic sponsors Coca Cola is really Pepsi or NBC is CBS or McDonald's is Wendy's...

It is useful to note that older Chinese may bristle at public expressions of shame, especially on the grand scale of an Internet.

It's not that they do not publicly shame each other—a subtlety such as a forward stroke of an index finger on their cheek is sufficient.