> Olympic Opening Uses Girl's Voice, Not Face
> Olympic opening song uses Chinese girl's voice, but says her face was
> 'not suitable'
> By CARA ANNA
> The Associated Press
> BEIJING
>
> A 7-year-old Chinese girl was not good-looking enough for the Olympics
> opening ceremony, so another little girl with a pixie smile lip-
> synched "Ode to the Motherland," a ceremony official said — the latest
> example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Summer
> Games.
>
> A member of China's Politburo asked for the last-minute change to
> match one girl's face with another's voice, the ceremony's chief music
> director, Chen Qigang, said in an interview with Beijing Radio.
>
> "The audience will understand that it's in the national interest,"
> Chen said in a video of the interview posted online Sunday night.
>
> The news follows reports that some footage of the fireworks exploding
> across China's capital during the ceremony was digitally inserted into
> television coverage, apparently over concerns that not all of the 29
> blasts could be captured on camera.
>
> China has been eager to present a flawless Olympics image to the
> world, shooing migrant workers and so-called petitioners who come to
> the central government with grievances from the city and shutting down
> any sign of protest.
>
> The country's quest for perfection apparently includes its children.
>
> Lin Miaoke's performance Friday night, like the ceremony itself, was
> an immediate hit. "Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with
> patriotic song," the China Daily newspaper headline said Tuesday.
>
> But the real voice behind the tiny, pigtailed girl in the red dress
> who wowed 91,000 spectators at the National Stadium on opening night
> really belonged to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi. Her looks apparently failed
> the cuteness test with officials organizing the ceremony, but Chen
> said her voice was judged the most beautiful.
>
> "The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks
> and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen," Chen said. "Lin
> Miaoke was the best in this. And Yang Peiyi's voice was the most
> outstanding."
>
> During a live rehearsal soon before the ceremony, the Politburo member
> said Miaoke's voice "must change," Chen said in the radio interview.
> He didn't name the official.
>
> So Peiyi's voice was matched with Miaoke's face.
>
> "We had to make that choice. It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang
> Peiyi," Chen told Beijing Radio. "We combined the perfect voice and
> the perfect performance."
>
> Chen couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.
>
> A photo of Peiyi posted Tuesday on popular Web site Sina.com shows a
> smiling girl with bangs and crooked teeth. A China News Service story
> posted with the photo says a China Central Television reporter asked
> Peiyi whether she felt regret over the opening ceremony.
>
> Peiyi responded that just having her voice used for the opening
> ceremony was an honor.
>
> Whether the move was unethical, or unfair to both girls, has become a
> hot topic among Chinese and is racing across the country's
> blogosphere.
>
> "The organizers really messed up on this one," said Luo Shaoyang, 34,
> a retail worker in Beijing.
>
> "This is like a voice-over for a cartoon character," Luo said. "Why
> couldn't they pick a kid who is both cute and a good singer? This
> damages the reputation of both kids for their future, especially the
> one lip-synching. Now everyone knows she's a fraud. Who cares if she's
> cute?"
>
> Zhang Xinyi, 22, who works in marketing in Beijing, disagreed.
>
> "I can understand why they picked the prettier girl. They need to
> maintain a certain aesthetic beauty during the opening ceremonies.
> This situation is not so bad, especially since it gives two people an
> opportunity to shine rather than just one."
>
> Peiyi is a first-grader at the Primary School affiliated to Peking
> University. Her tutor, Wang Liping, wrote in her blog that Peiyi is
> both cute and well-behaved, with a love for Peking opera.
>
> "She doesn't like to show off. She's easygoing," Wang wrote. She and
> other school officials couldn't be reached Tuesday.
>
> Miaoke, however, was a minor celebrity even before the opening
> ceremony. The third-grader appeared in a television ad last year with
> China's biggest gold medal hope, hurdling champion Liu Xiang, and she
> was in an Olympics ad just before Chinese New Year, China Daily
> reported.
>
> Miaoke has her own blog, and one of the latest photos posted since the
> ceremony shows her looking up nervously at the ceremony's director,
> film director Zhang Yimou. "Giving the child encouragement," the
> caption says.
>
> Her father, Lin Hui, told China Daily he learned Miaoke would be
> "singing" only 15 minutes before the opening ceremony began. The
> newspaper wrote Lin "still cannot believe his daughter has become an
> international singing sensation."
>
> It was the second straight Olympics where the opening ceremony
> involved lip-synching.
>
> Luciano Pavarotti's performance at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin was
> prerecorded. The maestro who conducted the aria, Leone Magiera, said
> earlier this year that the bitter cold made a live performance
> impossible for Pavarotti, who was in severe pain months before his
> cancer diagnosis. Pavarotti died in September 2007 at age 71.
>
> ———
>
> Chi-Chi Zhang contributed to this report.
>
> ———