The Chinese Communist Party has showed their real flavor by fronting a ringer to lip-sync for the real singer who finished up the Olympic opening ceremony. According to the article:
Miaoke, a third grader (ringer), was judged cute and appealing but “not suitable” as a singer. Another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7 (real singer), was judged the best singer but not as cute. . . “The reason was for the national interest,” explained Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies, “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression.”
Update: Per the APF
China enforced a media blackout on the saga of the faked Olympic opening ceremony song on Wednesday and all references to the story were removed from Chinese Internet sites.
{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
Those footprint fireworks were faked too.
And most – if not all – of China’s “unique” culture is in fact Korean.
It’s a mini-Vanilli moment!
“And most – if not all – of China’s “unique” culture is in fact Korean.”
Huh?
Is anyone surprised?
Political correctness barely exists- if at all- in Asia.
The CCP should be wiser but they are not.
I’m beginning to think that high party officials in China should work in Washington, D.C. since their ability to empathize with the worst qualities in a bureaucracy is predictable and scary. If they had let the creative people (instead of party stooges) manage this, it would not have happened like this. It would be better, still.
“And most – if not all – of China’s “unique” culture is in fact Korean.”
If you mean the fact that they are douchebags of the highest caliber than I would have to agree.
Miaoke was indeed cuter and more appealing. But in need (I thought) of a laser peel, a higher nose bridge, and perhaps a mild jaw-shave. What part of “flawless” don’t those Chinese understand?
Similar to Hollywood using body doubles in sex scenes.
Exactly “Alejandro”. Yang Peiyi is charming just the way she is (real) and a good singer.
Wow. Who put the jam out of your donut? I’m going to guess a Korean.
Paul Gadd thinks they are both cute.
#8,
You do realize that movies are not real, right?
So I guess the message is that any progress the CCP claims to have made should be viewed with suspended disbelief.
#12,
And made for TV events are?
Um… is this lip-syncing really a big deal? Thought of it more as a ‘fun fact’ than anything else when I first heard about it.
@#12 & #14
Both of you are crushing my child-like innocence and imagination right now. I feel like crying in a corner.
#14,
How would you feel if you had won the jackpot at the lottery and were told that there was no money because the lottery was just a made for TV event?
I’m with 15.
China resorted to fakery and deception to show its best face to the world?
Oh.
My.
Dog.
This reminds me of earlier in the year when many Koreans thought Yi So-yeon wasn’t pretty enough to be Korea’s first in space.
Unlike all the ‘stars’ around here, seeing people on screen who’s image isn’t ‘flawless’ is a sure and refreshing sign of their actual talent.
This reminds me of a president who seems to be just a puppet, let me remember his name… oh yes, G. W. Bush …
Who really cares? Those that do are quick to point the finger. American values surely surpass this kind of debauchery right? We would never make a decision based on looks… That’s why we don’t watch shows like American Idol or America’s Next Top Model.
I love the way western media takes every opportunity to drag China through the mud in such a gossipy matter of fact manner. It is so transparent it is laughable. Point blank — Chinese culture scares the shit out of the west, because they cooperate, are capable of things we can’t even fathom (the Great Wall just one of them), and they put on a hell of a show for the opening ceremony — who can deny that? An envious bigot probably could.
If you are going to compare this fakery to that of a DVD or Gucci hand bag, you better not own one.
I am glad they used the cuter girl, and so are most Chinese and even the girl’s family. They don’t care. They got paid. She was just happy to participate. But Americans turn it into a facebook group at the drop of a dime and are already drawing beards on the cuter girls face. Sad sad sad.
You’re right, Dinkus.
Oh, the next time I finish a project I’ll send in some good looking shmo with the hard-copy because my boss thinks I’m ugly and can’t deal with my personal aesthetics cluttering the slickness of his world.
It doesn’t matter if you think America ‘does worse’ or live up to a certain standard. One wrong doesn’t excuse the other from being wrong. Besides, this has nothing to do with America or American values. (huh???) China was wrong for what they did. Period, point blank.
As far as that little girl and their family being ‘happy’…come the heck on, what were they supposed to say? ‘I’m pissed because they called my child ugly, yet wanted her to do all of the work and they called in this child actress to perpetrate a fraud?’ How far would they have gotten saying something like that? Yeah right. The gov’t would’ve persecuted them so hard for saying anything negative about that situation. Of course they’re gonna say ,’oh, she was just happy to have participated’. As much/many extreme lengths that gov’t has taken to quiet anything remotely negative about China (jailing protesters, etc.) They’d BETTER have said what the gov’t wanted them to say!
*snort* Please.
“Chinese culture scares the shit out of the west, because they cooperate, are capable of things we can’t even fathom (the Great Wall just one of them)”
Cooperate? You do know that slaves built the wall and thousands of them died in the process? Hence its local nickname: “the longest cemetery in the world”
You’re right, that kind of “cooperation” is scary as hell.
It is. And so are thousands of Chinese acrobats wearing glowing balls on neon outfits, dancing perfectly in sync and shaping a flying dove with their bodies. Only in China (and North Korea).
I am not picking sides. I am just pointing out how I don’t like CNN’s attitude and think it is being blown out of proportion. It’s being made into a sob story when it isn’t. Chinese culture doesn’t see things as emotionally as we do. They are about face, and in this case they opted for a cuter one. Who cares. Get over it Oprah.
You’re happy, Dinkus? I’m glad for you, really.
I do, however, think it’s an odd slope you’re skiing.
I think about that little girl and I KNOW the world would have accepted her, crooked teeth and all. I believe they would have adored her even more for her flaws which I find endearing.
I think about her future and wonder about this massive dose of educational cynicism. Maybe China has a Judy Garland in their future or perhaps her daughter Liza. Maybe she’s strong enough and self-assured enough to avoid those traps, the pitfalls of self-delusion her governments caught up in.
What else is being filtered? Has Michael Phelps really been winning all those gold medals or is it just a compelling fiction? Maybe he’s down at one of those bars that was supposedly closed, consoling himself with Mongolian prostitutes and some black friends.
#4, Political correctness most certainly does exist in the People’s Republic of China. Basically, anything which might prove to be embarassing to the government is not to be mentioned. An activist in Sichuan Province had some structural engineers take a look at the collapse of the schools during the recent earthquake. He put the findings up on his website and is currently imprisoned. He is currently being investigated on a theft of “state secrets”.
Almost anything can be a state secret, as the world found out in 2003 with SARS. A doctor who treated many of the victims in a Beijing hospital let the Western media know that the cases they were dealing with were far in excess of the figures given by the Chinese government. He was investigated for illegally possessing state secrets as well and placed under house arrest.
The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t take kindly to whisteblowers or indeed anyone who might paint a picture far less rosy than what they want the world to believe.
Also, putting out the number of people executed by orders of the Central People’s Government each year would be an illegal use of state secrets.
Still, in the interests of balance, it must be admitted that things are a lot better than they were during the years of Chairman Mao. China has a long way to go in becoming a nation governed “by the rule of law”, but there have been some attempts made. For the first time, defense attorneys are now allowed to meet their clients before their trials, something which was generally not allowed and certainly not in private.
Oh, one more thing, Dinkus, why the name.
While I enjoy a good oxymoron as much as the next guy, self-deprecation doesn’t seem to jibe with your overall philosophies. Why not Extremus, or Indomitabalus?
Just wondering.
c’mon kids, beautiful people need jobs too. If we non-beautiful people started doing the presentation AND the work behind the scenes, every single beautiful person in the world would be out of work.
And I’m willing to guess that that’s a lot of people. Imagine, millions and millions of people, people who have but one skill, being more beautiful than you or me, begging, glamorously, in the muck at your feet.
Getting thinner and more attractive with every starving, unemployed moment, as you did twice the work, got twice the recognition and reduced the worlds population by God knows how much while annihilating the fashion and cosmetics industries, possibly sparking a new great depression, both economic and spiritual.
Good God!!!!! China!!! Thank you!!! Put two, no, FOUR pretty little talentless girls up for the closing ceremonies!!!!!
Save us China!! You’re our only hope!
Astonishing! The whole world has for a long time seen China as a great nation—and then at a signaling moment, the public servants play trivial games with little girls!
What on earth were you thinking—Mr Whoever who made the decision?
It was the girl with typical teeth who sang so well!
You didn’t need to hide her.
that’s entertainment
I blame confucianism…
Who cares? Entertainment is mostly about enhancing those areas where we fall short in real life. For instance, if surgeons had no way to perform surgery for 쌍까풀, there would be no 한류. That’s a fact. You think the story lines are so good that people are watching?
If the sponsors thought the little girl was ugly, so be it. Who’s footing the bill to put on a show btw? If it’s the Chinese government, then everyone should stfu.
$300 million (possibly more) will buy you a lot of that sort of stuff, just about anywhere you go. It was a heck of a performance, but I think a lot of people here are looking for a missing sense of genuineness. An ironic hunt from the children of cultures that brought the world things like Pop Idol, Cosmopolitan, and Hollywood? Sure. But even so, the fact that the Chinese officials saw fit to fake a couple of things sort of wears thin the general suspension of disbelief. I don’t think anyone is denying that the opening ceremony was impressive, but then again, they usually are, aren’t they?
On the scale of moral rectitude, this ranks up there along with fake boobs, fake orgasms, and comb-overs.
A slightly more serious matter is that some of the Chinese girls on the gymnastics team didn’t look old enough to have grown fuzz around their peaches.
That and Michael Phelps. Seriously that dude has got to be using some kind of substance.
IMHO, the Beijing opening ceremony was the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen, minor gaffes aside. No one can put on a 15,000 man show like those Communists. China has finally gotten a chance to be in the world spotlight and get some respect from the West. Only problem is they lack the sensibilities of their Western audience. They may gain respect and even fear by their wealth and power, but they will never be loved by nations that base their collective consciences on individual freedoms. Considering the tremendous human and material cost of the games, I feel sorry for the Chinese people because they won’t get what they really want no matter how hard they try under the present regime. For all their splendor, it only makes Western nations more wary and more ready to claim the high road. The US media’s nitpicking of the fireworks and the lipsyncing is merely a symptom of the dynamic.
What’s with the paleoconservatives on this forum? It’s not 1980 anymore. China is “commie” in name only. It’s authoritarian, but so was just about every other successful Asian country when it was at China’s level of development.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony was tremendously impressive. Let the Chinese have their day. And seeing how it’s pretty much inevitable that they’ll be East Asia’s hegemon by a country mile in just a few decades, it’s better to get used to them.
In the context of arguments of good China vs. bad China, I thought this article was interesting. It talks about American concerns that Chinese gymnasts may be “passport doping”.
The other thing that I thought was that if you took the article and replaced “American” with “Korean” and Wangkon made a post out of it, there would be a 100plus commentary section about what whiners and bad sports and hatahs the Koreans are. And some of the comments would not be from Mizar5.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10185795
i can’t believe people actually give a sh1t about this. so the chinese gov’t wanted to make every aspect asthetically pleasing, so the f*ck what? the girl that was seen by everyone is much cuter than the real singer. people who object to that should just look at the world around them. not too many ugly people getting jobs in front of the camera. at least the not-cute girl was able to do something. the chinese gov’t could have ditched both of them and found a cute girl who could sing.
ridiculous issue to be bothered by.
And yet they obviously do to the point where they’ll attempt to deflect any criticism arising from the event away from China by admonishing people who actually give a shit about it. It’s ironic, really. But anyhow, yes it’s silly to complain about China putting up one girl to lip-synch the performance of another, but it’s sort of a tradition for people to put the host nation of an Olympics under the microscope. After all, that’s what China signed up for, and unless the CCP is deluded as hell concerning its ability to control media from dozens of countries, they went into this knowing full well that various gaffes would be exposed and scrutinized well beyond their relative importance. I think the most mature response for China (and China boosters) would be to just smile and nod, since it’s bound to blow over by next week.
Wangkon @31,
Really? And here I was, thinking this was all Korean education system’s fault.
“After all, that’s what China signed up for, and unless the CCP is deluded as hell concerning its ability to control media from dozens of countries, they went into this knowing full well that various gaffes would be exposed and scrutinized well beyond their relative importance.”
When can we expect the articles berating China as a baby-exporting nation?
My guess is shortly after it’s discovered that the exported babies are contaminated with antifreeze.
“I think the most mature thing for China(and China boosters)would be to just smile and nod…”
I don’t know, Singapore is much cuter. Maybe they would agree to a head-sync.
Who was it that exposed Milli Vanilli?
I believe it was their manager.
#41: “My guess is shortly after it’s discovered that the exported babies are contaminated with antifreeze.”
In America, the concern is all about the Pb-laced products.
A: Unleaded or regular?
B: Unleaded, please.
(overheard at a Chinese orphanage)
Do you think the earthquake boy was actually in the earthquake?
#48
They actually had a boy there who was in the earthquake, but they decided that he wasn’t cute enough, so they replaced him. They totally still used a recording of the sound of his footsteps, though.
Does anyone remember how in 2001, when the IOC were still deliberating who would get these Games, the news footage of Chinese workers spraying the grass with green paint in Beijing to make it look better?
“Chinese culture doesn’t see things as emotionally as we do.”
Er, if you exclude nationalism from emotion, I suppose so. I have seen plenty of Chinese people get plenty worked up about China-related issues.
“Great Wall of China” proves Chinese people’s cooperation.
Does the existence of the pyramids prove that the Egyptians are inherently great team workers? Judging by their economy today, I would say no. Does the Colisseum (sp?) demonstrate that Italians are inately efficient builders? Their postal service and parliamentary democracy would argue against that. Achievements of the long distant past don’t mean much in today’s world.
I suggest that China AS A WHOLE is much more a dog-eat-dog society (cue dogmeat jokes, sigh) than a collectivist/cooperative one (although individual local communities do differ). Just go and talk to the losers in China’s development/Olympics preparation – those who lost their houses with little or no compensation, for example.
I didn’t think it was a big deal. Is it wrong? I don’t think so, but then again — you have to wonder why the Chinese government is censoring it!
Just admit it, who cares? Hiding it makes it worse.
I can’t believe what a spectacle the world media is making of it.
One Korean woman said: “That’s so pathetic (regarding the lip-syncing) — so 1960s Korea.”
“I love the way western media takes every opportunity to drag China through the mud in such a gossipy matter of fact manner. It is so transparent it is laughable.”
– Yes, pretty sad. It’s just become obvious to me. Slow learner.
“Point blank — Chinese culture scares the shit out of the west, because they cooperate, are capable of things we can’t even fathom (the Great Wall just one of them),”
– Lost me there. It is scary — it’s largely unknown, that’s why. Nothing to do with China per se. It’s big and unknown. As for the great wall, the west has its share of achievements, don’t you think? The scary part for me was the beehive mentality. Nobody questioning, nobody *able* to question, just following orders exactly as dictated. Doesn’t seem “human”, very robotic.
I get a similar feeling in Korea when I drive by the people all standing in a line, holding a sign (politics or advertising), waving their white gloves in the air. There’s one leader who barks something, they all bow, and wave their hands. Imagine trying to get 15 westerners to do something so idiotic and mind-numbing.
Can one really trust the sensibilities and judgment of a government that works in such a manner though? If one is in New York, they might seem pretty far away though, almost as if they do not really exist . . .
#20,
Aren’t they all?
My uncle was one of the very highest ranking members of government…one of the guys who pulls the strings behind the scene. He says politicians are nothing but figureheads.
“That and Michael Phelps. Seriously that dude has got to be using some kind of substance.”
It sure seems like it when you compare his musculature with that of the other swimmers… That or he’s a mutant.
There’s been several studies done in the US showing that better looking job applicants get the job, while ugly ones don’t. We all understand the implications. I had my teeth “fixed” to look perfect and white because that’s the expectation – it hurt like hell on the dentist’s chair.
China and number other countries haven’t caught on to the facade of political correctness, so they can be more blunt about it. In places like China and Malaysia the employer can specify appearance, age, and height requirements.
The Chinese have an ancient concept of “5 facial features” (wu guan), as well as “face reading” to determine the person’s nature. In old days employers would ask for “wu guan duan tsen” as a requirement. That is, your face must be whole, without prominent scars or skin defects, and your eyes, nose, mouth, ear, etc. should be well proportioned and not missing or damaged. If you’re missing an ear, or have harelip, you won’t be hired.
This is because the business prefers to have a good-looking face representing them. Same reason why we hire better looking receptionist ladies today.
As for the Great Wall and Pyramids comment, both China and Egypt used a lot of cheap labor to build them, while the soldiers stood around with whips as task masters.
In comparison, the Roman soldiers were far tougher. They carried heavier loads, had to march 32km in 5 hours, served for 20-25 years, and built roads and stone structures by hand. Promotion to Centurion was usually only possible after 1-2 decades of service.
A typical marine or army special ops guy today couldn’t compare to the toughness of a Roman legionnaire. But that history along doesn’t make Italians good at fighting wars today.
Jerry,
You are wrong about the type of labor used to build the Pyramids. True, that corvee labor was used to build them, but archeological evidence would indicate that it wasn’t oppressed slave labor but rather Egyptian citizens who came on a seasonal rotational basis. They were well fed and not coerced.
Slaves are actually kinda expensive to buy in large numbers, but when you’re the God King, you can compel your subjects to come and build your tomb with very little payment. That is cheap labor.
In 18th-19th century Europe, French roads were considered to be the best maintained in Western Europe. Every able bodied men were compelled to give x number of days in labor, or pay in coin, toward maintenance of public-use facilities. The French monarch didn’t pay for it, they simply imposed it as a head tax. That, is labor for nothing.
dinkus mcslush: “I love the way western media takes every opportunity to drag China through the mud in such a gossipy matter of fact manner. It is so transparent it is laughable. Point blank — Chinese culture scares the shit out of the west, because they cooperate, are capable of things we can’t even fathom (the Great Wall just one of them), and they put on a hell of a show for the opening ceremony — who can deny that? An envious bigot probably could.”
Talk about using the race card. Let’s examine the argument that “they…are capable of things we can’t even fathom”. Contemporary science, technology, democracy, capitalism…would it be too unfair to state that not only does the west fathom them, but they invented them?
So what is it about Chinese culture that supposedly “scares the shit out of the west”? Accupuncture? Chopsticks? Pottery? MSG?
Let’s get real here. The media has generally acknowledged that they put on a great opening ceremony and the excellence of their athletes. So how are they being envious bigots here? As controversies over the ways in which the communist nations have enhanced the performance of their athletes is nothing new to the Olympics, does the fact that this is China suddenly make this an untouchable subject? Is there an unwritten rule that China alone is exempt from criticism because some dinkus might pull the race card?
“So what is it about Chinese culture that supposedly “scares the shit out of the west”? ”
Spies, sheer numbers of people, and lead-based paint.
The Chinese realize we’re on to them about MSG and they’re plotting their next move to slowly enervate us.
How about a human rights record that is worse than the U.S. and the arms and people foolish enough to believe the nationalistic rhetoric spewed by the CCP to use these arms, not to mention the collective negative effect China has had upon its neighbors (Nepal, Korea, etc.) already. Considering such, the CCP is not good news to anyone but those that profit from them.
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