Little Olympic Girl in Red Dress Pulls an 'Ashley Simpson'

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Lin Miaoke Sings The Star Spangled Banner

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Opinion

On Friday night near the very beginning of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the world witnessed the appearance of a beautiful little Chinese girl in a charming red dress who sang a heartwarming song as the Chinese flag entered the Bird's Nest Stadium. Despite the magical and spectacular performance that followed her song, the image of her smiling face and the sound of her sweet and tender voice captivated the world at large and many are still 'gushing' over what they describe as one of the most touching moments of the ceremony.

There is just one problem. The little girl who we saw on the stage was not the little girl who we heard sing the song. The Telegraph Newspaper in England reports today that the show's musical designer, Chen Qigang, "gave an interview to Beijing radio saying the real singer was a seven-year-old girl who had won a gruelling competition to perform the anthem, a patriotic song called 'Hymn to the Motherland'". The real singer is a little Chinese girl named Yang Peiyi who according to the article and Beijing radio "might have a perfect voice but was unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth."

The music designer defended his decision by stating that it was "a question of the image of our national music, our national culture." Apparently, Mr. Chen felt that attaining 'perfection'  was the most important priority and that it could be only achieved by combining a perfect voice and a 'perfect' little girl.

While lip synching is certainly not a new phenenenom in musical performances, the fact that the girl who sang the hymn was passed up because she was not cute enough is a little disturbing. First, if you take a look at the picture of Yang Peiyi, you will quickly discover that she is actually very cute. I hardly would have noticed her 'buck teeth' had not someone pointed them out to me. I am sure that a performance by her would have had the same charming effect on the world. Second, if Beijing was willing to deceive the world in this manner, one has to wonder what other measures were taken to make sure that the opening ceremony went so smoothly . We already know that some of the spectacular firework displays over Beijing were staged so coupled with this revelation, there are sure to be more questions forthcoming about Friday night.

For me, staged fireworks and lip synching do not take away from the grandness of the opening ceremony. However, they do leave me feeling a little uneasy inside because we all know that Beijing is an expert at deceiving the world. If they were able to pull these relatively innocent deceptions off so smoothly, I shudder to think about what else they might have been able to hide from the world in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games.

Robert Vance is Senior Editor at TeachAbroadChina.com