Except the Chinese gymnasts actually are younger than 16. Back on topic: I don't see how anyone can say that doing this to 8-year-old kids is alright.
Well, I am not even arguing whether they are really 16 or not. I did read the thread and you are one of the few people who had relied mainly on the look to make your point. So that's why I directed that question to you. Honestly I just found it amazing that you still tried to recycle that argument after someone posted the pictures of the Japanese gymnasts. So how do you apply your age matching look argument to the Japanese?
The national interest dictates that ugly eight year olds do not get screen time during the Olympics, unless she's killer in the floor exercise... then we might have a spot for her.
I'd buy that argument if the plan all along was to have the girl just record the audio. However, it seems that what actually happened was that government officials saw her singing in a rehearsal and requested that she be removed from the ceremony because of her appearance. That's just unbelievably mean-spirited.
Wasn't there a girl(Ramsey I believe) in Colorado that was killed a while back who was in some underaged beauty pageant? Age apparently doesn't factor into these things... I get what you're saying. I still think it's just a fact of life. Whether it be the officials who thought her too un-cute or the director or whoever. Yes, it's very mean-spirited, and I'd be much more impressed if the original girl went on stage and performed it live. In fact, I'd be very much in awe of that. But this was the Olympics opening ceremony. The officials weren't about to let an 8 year old mess up the "perfection" of the ceremony.
My immediate reaction to this news was almost outrageous. Assuming what was reported in the media was what exactly happened, fair and objective( not selective or presumptive), i do think the government mishandled it and looked pretty bad being so intrusive in decision-making and so obessive with the so-called "national interests". However, given western media's track record regarding China, let's not foget the tibet riot coverage, i am not that easily buying into whatever the media feed me. It's almost a sure thing for the media to grasp whatever opportunity to present chinese governmental offcials as silly, authoritarian ,repressive, and ruthless. There may be other explaination, like one of the posters mentioned, that the girl who had the better voice happened to be ill-comfortable in perforimg lively in such a big event before such a huge crowd. May be it's not about simple apprearance ( the girl don't look ugly at all to me, and i belive with some makeup, she definitely could look as pretty as the other girl, which makes the appreance explanation a little weak).....but about how she presented herself before a crowd in a live performance~ you know a lot of people sucked in big time because of nervousness,etc. That's the only justification i could accept for the lip-synch incidence. Otherwise, i am feel a little bit of shameful for the relevent officials.
Blah blah blah the unfair western media blah blah blah. Just like the underage Chinese gymnast story, this started with media in China first.
Yeah, the Western media has the time to make up stories like this. They don't really have anything important going on right now.
Are you talking about Tracy Hong's post? You should read it again if you are. In no where did she say the incident was made up by the Western Media. I guess everyone knows the Chinese media broke the news. You should re-read to see what her opinion is about the Western media which is in no way close to what you think.
No offense, it seems to me you have intentionally tried to mis-interpret what she said in oder to paint the image that she's biased and ignorant. I agree English is obviously not her first language. But I really don't believe what she wanted to say is really that difficult to understand.
Actually her English is pretty darn good. It seemed to me she said that the Western media tends to make up stories and/or make tiny stories into big ones. I'm saying that the Western media has better things to do right now.
Well, you said: You obviously referred to the lip-synch incident with the 'this'. So did you mean to imply that she wanted to say the Western media had made up the lip-synch incident as news? I hope you won't attempt to deny it.
You got the order wrong. It had been the plan for the "pretty" girl to act and sing (probably still lip-syncing though) all the way. But in the last round review, some big shot didn't like her voice. One option was to choose another one from the backups. But it was unfair for the "pretty" girl, or partly they didn't like the vocal girl's stage appearance (could be the look, or more likely she was nervous on big stage as I think), so the director made a compromise to use the backup girl's soundtrack. And according to the director, the backup girl and her family were ok with it. In the end, i think it's a big fuss made out of a little thing.
I don't think so: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/olympics/chi-yang-peiyi-lin-miaoke-080812-ht,0,857904.story So I don't know where you are getting your info. I would hope not in the Chinese media.
I know these guys didn't sing those great songs, but their VH1 Behind the Music was awesome. It turned out it was more stressful for the person who was lip syncing. Remember Fab lost it (RIP Fab) because of this. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MyMz7Lka5EA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MyMz7Lka5EA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Gee, do you reallize the Chicago Tribute story was based on reports in the Chinese media? They just wrote the story differently, big shock. Here's the original transcript: 我们听过一次林妙可的录音，在现场放的，是在联排的时候。然后有各方面的人，尤其是中央政治局的领导，在听的时候，给我们提出了意见，说必须要改变。这是没有办法的。 Good luck in find out what it really means. Hint: It was Lin in rehearsal, not Yang.
I don't like this go by the looks thing, but the whole thing was already predetermined as "looks" over other thing. Lin was chosen for the rehearsal, then they subbed her voice. Unnecessary IMO
Hmm, do you care that the story was reported by Chinese media first? Maybe only when it beams through your tanning goggle. Look, it all started from one Chen Qigang, the music director's interview. I don't have the exact words handy and I don't claim I have the whole truth. But after reading from multiple news sources (yes, they are in Chinese), I believe I have a better picture than those western journalists who are simply quoting and translating from Chinese anyway. Not try to convince anyone, here is what I gathered and my comments too: 1. Zhang Yimou is the overall director of the ceremony. As a photographer and film director, he cares more about appearance and acting. So Lin Miaoke was the number 1 candidate out of all four girls selected and trained, Yang included. 2. Chen Qigang, the music director himself, didn't like Lin's voice (accordingly shaking his head in the interview when talk about Lin's voice). When they had the recorded soundtracks reviewed in rehearsal (yes they played Lin's soundtrack in rehearsal so they planned lip-sync all along), some higher authority guy didn't like the voice either so they made the final switch. 3. IOC and the broadcasters ware made aware of the decision (two-girls lip-sync) according to Gilbert Felli, an IOC officer. 4. For me, it's better to use Yang solely as she looks cute to me but understandable they made the decision. What's wrong is they didn't make it clear from the beginning in a more official way so it painted a bad picture about it. A bad PR move they need to learn from.
