Why the Beijing Opening Ceremony Has Annoyed Me

I feel like I'm doing alot of "self- image" and "media distortion" posts, but this caught my attention:

I don't know if any of you guys have heard about the little girl who sang at the opening ceremony of the olympics.

Basically what happened was that the girl with the two pigtails and the red dress that you thought sang that really pretty national anthem was actually lip syncing. Her name is Lin Miaoke.

The voice really belonged to another little girl, that they deemed not "cute enough" to perform. Her name is Yang Peiyi.

Frankly, I think that's disgusting. Honestly- they're 7 and 9 years old! So young! and I can't believe that they picked one little Chinese girl over another. In my opinion, they were both adorable. And the fact that is was a fraud makes the opening ceremony look less touching and more...just a concieted display. I mean if they had put the other girl in a red dress and done her hair and makeup, she would look just as pretty, if not prettier. Its such a shame, that at a young age that little girl is probably already made insecure about her appearance.

And the girl who lip synced? she got credit for singing at first, going to interviews and hailed by a newspaper as a 'rising star'. I'm glad that the musical director set the record straight by revealing that she wasn't actually singing.

Gah! This frustrates me so much! And that whole thing about the fireworks being enhanced as well...gosh, I wish that people stopped tampering with appearances, it just makes the whole ceremony look worse after people find out that its all just a facade.

Here's the picture of the two little girls:

For those who may argue that "well yeah, plenty of people lip sync" and I say- yes, people like Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears do lip sync, but it is different when the girl in question is 9 years old. This is the Olympics, a more serious event, not some concert. Also, its different lip syncing something you sang earlier than lip syncing someone else's work! And honestly, I think that this situation could have been avoided. I mean, sure her teeth a little crooked but I think the Chinese are taking this "must...give...perfect...image..." thing a little too far. Plus, the real singer looks plenty cute anyway, they should have just kept her and saved themselves the trouble.

So basically, congratulations to Yang Peiyi for singing beautifully at the Olympics- I think she deserved to be at center stage.