Lip syncing at the Olympics

[koalathebear]

There's much outrage in China right now over the decision to select 9 year old 林妙可 Lin Miao Ke for her looks over 7 year old 楊沛宜 Yang Pei Yi, although 楊沛宜 Yang Pei Yi's voice was used.

There is no doubt that 林妙可 Lin Miao Ke is absolutely adorable. I thought so on the night.

Comments

[svelterose]

Western Media has always been not so friendly towards Eastern countries but ever since the Olympics have started, they've really gone over the line.

[weissman]

I am not sure about that, I think the coverage on china and the chinese athletes has been positively endering. I think they are really showing china and the chinese people as being very warm and friendly. Its like one long travel commercial for China.

Bob

[koalathebear]

I'm not watching US television, I can only go by what I am reading in the print media

[weissman]

Unlike in previous Olympics they are actually showing the competitions with all the fluf, on three seperate channels (Like 3500 hours of coverage) plus the sports you don't see on TV you can watch (live or recorded) on the web.What fluf they do show is very well done.

Bob

[arrietty]

That is an outrage... I'm appalled. The fact that the parents let their daughter's voice be used is also a worry, but then they may not have known or had any power over it.

I think the singer is a gorgeous little girl and should have been allowed to perform. Not that the other little isn't pretty and also has had no power in all of this. It just seems terrible for everyone as far as I can see.

[koalathebear]

I don't think the parents knew - it seemed to be a last minute decision. I think it was a very unfortunate decision and completely unwarranted. The little girl was 7, I don't think anyone would have been condemning her for her crooked babyteeth :P

[arrietty]

I really don't like it when children are treated differently because they don't fit what people think are the norm.

We only have to listen to and see Paul Potts (winner of has Britain got talent) to see that teeth don't matter at all.

Are you enjoying the games? The arena looks amazing.

[hazy_crazy]

Wow, I KNEW something wasn't right when I first saw her singing! We were trying to decide whether she was lip-syncing or not, but then I said, "She's wearing a mic!" so we thought that settled the matter. But even so, I suspected it wasn't her real voice, or had been pre-recorded. It didn't sound right. XD And now I know the truth!

I think it's disgraceful. They're both perfectly normal, cute young Chinese girls. And aren't we taught to embrace our abnormalities (not that crooked teeth is abnormal, but you know what I mean) and understand that we're all different, but that's normal? (Lol it sounds like I'm contradicting myself. I don't explain it very well!) It sucks because of all the women's body image/self-esteem drama and they're influencing us to think otherwise, that differences = bad/ugly. Bad move by whoever it was who made that decision - they definitely lose my respect.

And the Western headlines aren't helping the situation at all!

[koalathebear]

We guessed she was lip syncing as well but had no idea that she was lip syncing to someone else's singing. There was a lot of outrage about it here although some people also said that it's show biz so there's nothing wrong with putting forward the prettiest face etc ...

[coneycat]

I haven't been following the coverage, so I thought the western media was reporting on the opening ceremony committee's reason for not allowing the little girl to perform--that they deemed her to be "not attractive enough" for television. Maybe I'm thinking that because the only TV coverage I've seen of it was Ian Hanomansing on the CBC, reading quotes from the committee decision to show the so-called "cuter" child. CBC offered no opinion on the children's attractiveness (I think they're both adorable.) So if Yang Pei Yi speaks English, all she'd have gotten from CBC was the opinion of her own committee, not that of the broadcaster.

I know the western media leaves a lot to be desired--but they weren't the ones who decided one of the children was not cute enough for TV.

[koalathebear]

I know the western media leaves a lot to be desired--but they weren't the ones who decided one of the children was not cute enough for TV.

I agree but the Olympic organisers just said that Miaoke was more suited for the performance and the Chinese media (from what I have read so far), are also describing it in such terms. It's the Western press that have gone so far as to use words like "ugly", "hideous", "not cute enough" etc in their headlines. That being said, I haven't got around to all the Chinese articles yet :D

[coneycat]

The organizers (as quoted by the CBC) said the decision was about "presenting the proper image." It's very hard to see what they could possibly mean aside from the visual impression given by the children--which means their relative attractiveness. I am prepared to believe some crappy media outlets are using stupid words like "hideous" to describe the organizers' attitude toward the kids, but the ones I've seen are simply putting the obvious interpretation on the decision: "sorry, folks, we don't think your kid is cute enough to be on television."

In this specific case the event organizers did something that I can't help seeing as petty and mean. It might have been different if the little girl who did the singing had been identified as part of the opening ceremonies but it appears nobody knew about her until the lip-syncing thing came out, which means she was not intended to get credit for her performance. Which is a mean thing to do to a little girl on top of telling her she isn't going to be on TV because the other kid is prettier.

[alexandral]

Oh, this is an ugly story. Also I think that the second girl is very cute too and with a nice dress and head-gear would have been as adorable as the first one (little girls are ALL adorable, IMHO).

Lin Miao Ke because she's probably suffering humiliation and backlash over something that was definitely not within her control.

I would definitely not go along with this if this was my child. I think her Lin Miao Ke's parents made a big mistake.

[koalathebear]

I think Lin Miao Ke is more conventionally pretty and has a more Western-looking face. Yang Pei Yi looks like a very typical, ordinary little Chinese girl.