'Fake' images scandal at the Olympics

Musical chairs: Yang Peiyi (left) and Lin Miaoke swapped places Rebecca-Monique Williams

Like many other people, I was totally astonished when I found out that the performance by the ‘girl in the red dress’ with the immaculate voice at the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing was faked.

I watched the live opening ceremony on TV and thought it was obvious that the little girl singing Ode to the Motherland was miming, but was amazed when it came to light that she wasn’t even miming to her own voice.

And the reason for this? The little girl who was actually singing (Yang Peiyi, aged seven) was replaced by nine-year- old Lin Miaoke because her face was “not suitable” for the Olympics opening ceremony. Following discussions on the relative photogenicity of small children, it was decided that Yang’s uneven teeth would be potentially damaging to China’s international image, and so she would, at the last minute, need to be replaced.

The event's general music designer Chen Qigang explained to a Beijing radio station: "We made the decision that the voice we would use was Yang Peiyi's. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression."

Qigang added: "Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in the aspect of voice, Yang Peiyi is flawless".

When asked by a CCTV journalist whether she was sad to have missed the opening ceremony, Yang replied: "No, my voice was there."

The replacement highlights China’s underlying cultural preferences regarding beauty. Research carried out by Dr Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at Texas University, shows that ‘beautiful’ women in Shanghai enjoy a 10 per cent plus premium in pay than ‘ugly’ people. Britain’s attractive women earn one per cent more than those who aren’t so good looking.

Amid this revelation, the organisers also revealed yesterday that the 29 footprint firework display at the heart of Friday's opening ceremony contained a substantial amount of special effects, and that much of the fireworks section outside the stadium was in fact a digitally enhanced video which was superimposed onto live footage of the event.

Some Brits seem to be relieved and are confident that our 2012 London Olympics now has a chance of topping that of Beijing’s too-good-to-be- true opening ceremony.

* See also: http://www.the-latest.com/well-done-china

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