MANILA, Philippines?A teapot tempest has been brewing at the Beijing Olympics over a lip-synch performance at the global sports fest?s opening ceremonies, involving the little girl who soared above the enthralled crowd as she sweetly sang an ?Ode to the Motherland.?
It now turns out that there were two little girls involved?Yang Peiyi who sweetly sang the song but wasn?t seen by viewers, and Lin Miaoke, who mouthed the lyrics as she ?flew? over people?s heads.
Why the substitution? Well, it turns out that the little singer with the sweet voice wasn?t deemed pretty enough to put on camera, while her lip-synch double looked really good and gave the show the visual ?perfection? it required.
Disturbing substitution
Naturally, when reports of the substitution leaked out, many people were disturbed. They objected to the deception, and worried that little Yang Peiyi could be psychologically affected by the switch and snub.
Defenders of the substitution counter that it wasn?t intended to discriminate against the real singer, but was merely made to prevent young Chinese talent at its aural and visual ?best.?
It was felt that, if the girl on view wasn?t pretty enough, the musical moment wouldn?t have moved and thrilled viewers as much as it did.
For our part, we believe that some Chinese officials goofed, because they could have avoided the substitution by auditioning for a girl singer who looked good and sounded great.
Theater people do this all the time, so it beats us why the show?s director and musical director couldn?t manage to find one girl with all of the performing abilities and qualities required.
Given China?s vast population and proven depth and range of artistic talent, that would have been easier to do there than it is here!
Having said that, we should go on to observe that, artistic and political gaffes aside, the opening ceremonies were a visual feat and feast, arguably the best Olympics rites ever, or at least within memory.
Cynics may say that, given the fact that the show was budgeted at a hefty $300 million, it had to be the greatest show on earth! But more knowledgeable and experienced production people know that money isn?t everything?in fact, it isn?t even the main thing. Clearly, the Olympics show was a big popular and critical hit primarily because of its artistry and creativity.
It was a master stroke to frame the beautiful and exciting show within the defining context of a traditional Chinese scroll that sequentially unrolled to present different segments that thrilled the crowd with their verve and power.
In the process, the show highlighted the best in Chinese arts and culture, albeit tweaked and occasionally updated to more properly come to bear on the world of athletics.
True, the show?s final segments felt anticlimactic after the even more wondrous portions that preceded them, but the entire production still ended up deserving the rave that it got. As an inspired combination of traditional culture and state-of-the-art technology, it can?t be best.
How sad, therefore, that all the glory had to be marred by reports of ill-advised substitution, and such. The Olympics deserve better than this, and for the most part at the opening rites in Beijing, the 2008 edition of the Games got it.
New ?Harry Potter? trailer
Want to know how the latest Harry Potter film, ?Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? is shaping up? Its trailer is now being screened as an added attraction to the computer-animated adventure ?Star Wars: The Clone Wars.?
The big reveal in the trailer is a glimpse of the young Tom Riddle, who grows up to become the wizard world?s most malevolent force, Lord Voldemort.
In ?Half-Blood Prince,? Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and Wizard worlds. Harry suspects that dangers may lurk even within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle.
