This girl is lip synching. The photo of the girl who actually sang this is below.
Oh, China. You are a land of many mysteries. You fought to host the Olympics in a city so congested with pollution that you have quietly shut down scores of factories while the athletes are in town. You 
invite the world’s media into your backyard, but restrict their access to information. You charm the world by having an adorable little girl sing your national anthem at the opening ceremonies- and she turns out to be a fake.
A 7-year-old Chinese girl was not good-looking enough for the Olympics opening ceremony, so another little girl with a pixie smile lip-synched “Ode to the Motherland,” a ceremony official said- the latest example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Summer Games.
A member of China’s Politburo asked for the last-minute change to match one girl’s face with another’s voice, the ceremony’s chief music director, Chen Qigang, said in an interview with Beijing Radio.
“The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest,” Chen said in a video of the interview posted online Sunday night.
The news follows reports that some footage of the fireworks exploding across China’s capital during the ceremony was digitally inserted into television coverage, apparently over concerns that not all of the 29 blasts could be captured on camera.
China has been eager to present a flawless Olympics image to the world, shooing migrant workers and so-called petitioners who come to the central government with grievances from the city and shutting down any sign of protest.
The country’s quest for perfection apparently includes its children.
Lin Miaoke’s performance Friday night, like the ceremony itself, was an immediate hit. “Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with patriotic song,” the China Daily newspaper headline said Tuesday.
But the real voice behind the tiny, pigtailed girl in the red dress who wowed 91,000 spectators at the National Stadium on opening night really belonged to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi. Her looks apparently failed the cuteness test with officials organizing the ceremony, but Chen said her voice was judged the most beautiful.
“The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen,” Chen said. “Lin Miaoke was the best in this. And Yang Peiyi’s voice was the most outstanding.”
During a live rehearsal soon before the ceremony, the Politburo member said Miaoke’s voice “must change,” Chen said in the radio interview. He didn’t name the official.
So Peiyi’s voice was matched with Miaoke’s face.
“We had to make that choice. It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi,” Chen told Beijing Radio. “We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance.”
Chen couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
A photo of Peiyi posted Tuesday on popular Web site Sina.com shows a smiling girl with bangs and crooked teeth. A China News Service story posted with the photo says a China Central Television reporter asked Peiyi whether she felt regret over the opening ceremony.
Peiyi responded that just having her voice used for the opening ceremony was an honor.
If China’s officials were allowed full access to the Internet and American television, they would have figured out that these types of scams always end up being exposed- remember Milli Vanilli? It will be interesting to see what else gets digitally enhanced, replaced or deleted as the Olympics continue.
“The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen,”
The national interest?? This is about the saddest thing I’ve read in a long while. A 7-year old with a beautiful voice but deemed not pretty enough to be seen. Just the saddest.
It’s okay. Other countries do it all the time. The US does it too, they are even worse, they photoshopped their so-called beauty in many magazines.
I actually think that little girl is really cute, crooked teeth and all!
I’ve been reading about this all over the media, and yes it is sad that a (really cute)child was deemed not pretty enough to sing at the opening ceremony but I don’t understand the outrage. Why pick on the Chinese when this is completely normal practice throughout the entertainment industry worldwide. It seems to be a media beat-up. Where is the outrage when fugly kids lose the audition to the more attractive kids. There isn’t any, so why now?
A media beat up
I KNEW that kid was lip syncing!
And I think there’s a difference between photoshopping a model on a magazine cover and trotting out a child actor to lip sync “Ode to the Motherland.” The difference lies in the motivation – the opening ceremonies and indeed the entire Beijing Olympics have been one long stream of propaganda designed to make the rest of the world see how great China is despite their obvious, and many, issues. Officials have even recruited volunteer “fans” to fill the venues that aren’t generating as much fan interest.
Yeah, let’s not even pretend this is only a China thing, when we all know perfectly well that in the US they would have made the decision based on the “prettier” girl too.
Sad, but not surprising and not just from China. Yes, this does happen everywhere and has been since we first walked on 2 legs.
Of course this happens all the time. It was rumoured long ago that Celine Dione used to lip synch and the actual singer was not pretty but since she is not pretty herself, I decided it was a lie.
Not that it is OK to do this, but the western media are being hypocrites when they say they don’t use big events like Olympics and world cup for propanganda. I don’t even know why I am straining my self when Bush had the nerve to talk about Chinese humanrights when Guantanamo is in his back yard. Such things are what has cost us our credibility in the eyes of the rest of the world.
But this little girl is very pretty. I am glad they did not give her plastic surgery to make her look prettier. At this rate, they could have done that in the name of perfection.
The difference between the U.S. industries photoshopping a model or celebrity and China denying a little girl her due celebrity (yet still using her voice) is that the former are knowingly and willingly in a glamorous profession. They are consenting to such actions. The olympics is not about beauty or glamour and this whole event just made China look ridiculous and even uglier (if that is at all possible). What’s worse though is all these apologists who would not be able to have an opinion about this if they were living in China.
FIRST OF ALL– Yang Peiyi, you are positively adorable!! Don’t listen to anyone else!! And even if you weren’t, talent will last forever, and beauty fades.
Yeah, the U.S. would have pulled this crap too. But their version would be taking the pretty girl and either, A.) choose her totally on looks and let her bomb the performance, or B.)Whore her up, record her in the studio with synths and play the recording over her lip-synching….Hello, Britney, Ashlee, Avril, ect???
Don’t even try and tell me they wouldn’t cross that line with a 7-year-old….I’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again.
Kolby is 100% right on. Photoshopping mag covers is totally different. This is a political issue, please don’t try to justify it by saying the US would do it too.
PUH-LEASE… ashlee simpson’s allowed to do it on national TV but a 9 year old can’t??
Elisha…..Are you saying the USA never do this? The USA never pick the prettiest child to sing a song?
how is picking one childs face over another a political decision?
was she forced to lip sync under pain of ‘re-education’ the same as all those proud happy smiling people at the opening ceremony, 90,000 plus, – they weren’t really proud of their country -noooo, they were pretending under pain of threats by the government
everyone knows communist people are barely human anyway, don’t they?
Do you always swallow whole everything the media spits at you?
Apparently they don’t even have good taste because Peiye is so much cuter than Miaoke. I think she’s absolutely adorable and it’s just sad. And yes, we do this in the US, but being in the entertainment industry, that’s what you sign on for.
This is different. It’s the olympics. I really don’t think the US would pick a cute girl to perform at the opening ceremonies and make someone else sing for her.
its just that the Olympics should be about other values…
that´s what it makes it so sad!
xiaoecho – let’s be real here, this was not an instance where someone like Britney Spears is handpicked and groomed to be a star. The switch from the singer to the lip-syncher happened shortly before the opening ceremony began. Members of the politburo attended rehearsals, saw the little girl who was chosen to sing the song, and objected to her based solely on her physical appearance. They felt it was in the “national interest” of China to have an attractive child appear on television. They did this with the performers who walked out with the Chinese flag as well – yes, they may have been dressed in various regional costumes, but those people were most definitely not from the regions they represented. This is not the forum for a discussion like this, so I’m going to refrain from delving too deeply into this issue, but China has far more problems than just dirty air and shitty products. And of course the US has it’s own issues, plenty of them, but we’re not trying to convince the world that we’re something we’re not – the vast majority of our problems are on display for the entire world to see.
The little girl that was replaced is adorable. So what if her baby teeth are crooked. That’s cute too. Now she’s going to have to grow up knowing that she just wasn’t cute enough for the world to see. Its so sad. The Chinese “grown-ups” are fools to treat a child like that. Shame!
. . . and yes, I know it happens all over the world and not just in China. But that doesn’t make it right.
China- where nothing can go wrong, ON PAIN OF DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD.
Kolby….. we’ve both made our point but to demonise China while holding the USA up as a moral exemplar is toooo much, particularly since Bush…..
But as you say, this is not the forum
Could I just say something on the seat-filler business. Japan and South Korea did the same during the World Cup because they realised that it wasn’t feasible for many countries to have huge numbers of fans attend – especially the less popular fixtures – so they wore the team strips for the countries playing in the individual games. It makes sense as it helps the athletes’ morale enormously and is more economically viable to have people there as not (still the same amount of electricity etc used)
xiaoecho – at no point in my last post did I hold up the US as some sort of “moral exemplar.” This story is being printed in newspapers around the world and posted everywhere on the internet. If anything, Americans in general don’t pay as much attention to what goes on in the world as they should – it’s no coincidence that the most passionate anti-China protests are taking place in other countries, and not the US.
It is really sad that they felt the need to do this. Just deplorable. However I do find it highly amusing how many posters have adopted this self righteous air about this story when you are the same people who go on an on about Gwenyth Paltrows saggy boobs and other celebrities imperfections.
this is a shame….
and should not have happened…as for the fire work issues…”who cares”. 😯 😆 🙄
er,…this site is called Celebitchy….
Oh, and people can hold two contradictory ideas in their minds and believe them both
…..well, intelligent people anyway
some peoples minds don’t have the capacity to stretch that far
Look dude, if your anger over the song is over an untruthful representation of the state, than I can sympathize with your position. If, however, you live in a postmodern delusion wherein there is no such thing as beauty or truth, which I may or may not disagree with from a universal standpoint, then you are just irritating. I know, I know, the Nazis had eugenic policies and the Nazis are pure evil so the idea that beauty exists, or that the state should endorse a superior society by some, any standard, is pure evil etc…but remember, every other reasonably progressive state in the world had some sort of eugenic policy or another, including Sparta, Japan, and the United States, even if some were socially and not entirely state run. China, however, is completely forthcoming with these facts, and the child is mature enough to acknowledge that she may have a superior voice but perhaps not a superior face, which, if anything, is not an insult to her but a clear demonstration of cognitive strength and superiority on her behalf to accept this graciously. The ideals of the western world, including all of this nihilistic nonsense wherein “human rights” violations, and state interest in the condition and improvement of society is the ultimate shame, because you believe it is terrible, sick, or that there is just no such thing as improvement from an objective standpoint, well then you are living in a surrel fantasy bought by wealth, and are doing nothing more than perpetuating and extending destructive American ideals which are at their core, as Bentham or Mill said, just “nonsense on stilts” to begin with. I find it laughable when Americans, American(!) criticize the national actions or principles of other countries. It is perhaps the biggest joke ever. What I am trying to say is that it is this prevailing ideological garbage that is tearing America apart. The dispositions of people remain and need to be treated, as clearly yours do, with you fastidious standards regarding what people should do, so just stop criticizing people who are interested in bettering themselves and their nation, or criticize yourself please for your own complacency, and the life successive generations just will not have due to your lack of foresight and just general overconsumption and inability to postpone gratification. Acknowledge that people all over the world do like to look at appealing faces and just accept that sounding best and looking best is best for the reception by the world and overall international appreciation, even if what is cute is based on disposition and not ultimate truth. What humanly matter is after all based on ultimate, universal truth? America is dying and your non-existent standards are behind it, dear friends. You are behind it, You. So when China invades in fifty years, or just owns your enslaved ass economically because of eugenically induced genetic improvements, and your ideas on good society have failed, as they already have(we are just waiting to hit bottom), remember whose side I am on, because I’m just as brutally truthful and brutal as them, a superior people, of a superior society. Your fall from luxury will be hard, but your fall out of your little fantasy in the clouds will hurt far more. Farewell to all of you and your society of lies. Long live Northeast Asian supremacy.
(even though I’m just a white American guy)
I told people from the VERY beginning before the Olympics even started to not support the OLYMPICS because they were being held in CHINA. Well I hope all the horror stories coming out of this event are enough to prove that I was RIGHT. Yeah they shut down the factories, made people leave their homes, disrupted everyday life, arrested innocent people, etc. etc. etc. because they CARE about the world – NOT. This is political BS and although – I hope Serena takes it to the bank – I will not be watching her.
Yang Peiyi is adorable! What a cutie.
ADP – Don’t let the door hit ya where the *deity of your choice* split ya.
ADP I stopped reading your post after you started it with the words “Look Dude”. You just lost all credibility there.
This event was planned for years, how could they let a corrupt communist asshole in the Politburo, amateurishly make a last minute change like this?
I agree with the other posters, I think the first girl, Yang Peiyi, is much cuter, because to me, the second girls face shows the obvious contortions of a fake smile and nothing is uglier to me than a fake beauty contestant smile.
“the child is mature enough to acknowledge that she may have a superior voice but perhaps not a superior face, which, if anything, is not an insult to her but a clear demonstration of cognitive strength and superiority on her behalf to accept this graciously”
This little girl is seven. SEVEN. There is no WAY she is “mature enough to acknowledge that she may have a superior voice but perhaps not a superior face”. To insinuate otherwise is delusional.
I’m sure she was very, very hurt by the decision. She was told by her country that she is too ugly to be seen in public. I don’t care WHERE it happened, it shouldn’t have happened anywhere. It is a disgrace and this poor girl will forever have issues with self-confidence because she was a political pawn.
That little girl is cute! What is the cute standard in China???
I don’t think that this is really that shocking, nor is it something that other countries wouldn’t do. I just think it’s another thing that China did, which in comparison to all the other massive restrictions and changes China made to fake the “niceness” of Beijing, this kinda slides into the “Really? Are you that desperate to look perfect, even though we know all about your human rights violations and environmental destruction” category. I mean seriously, did they think we were going to be like “damn those are some ugly kids in China,” if the real singer girl walked out?
If anything, the most annoying part is that they think they’re going to pull one over on the world. Even with restricted journalism.
That just made me sad…..
I think the real singer is cute 🙂
It is all true. China is a communist society worried only about their perception in the world. The most insignificant thing they did was to replace this girl…
POINTS OF FACT!
Most of America and the world didn’t realize that 80% of the fireworks we saw at the end of the opening ceremony was computer generated.
The Govt, after a week, has restricted the press from covering the murder of the US family in Beijing, by confiscating reports notes and using scare tactics to repress the truth.
The Olympics is great to bring country’s together-We should not forget that China is a communist nation and all we are allowed to see is what they will allow us access to see…
kolby, im with you all the way here with your argument.
Milli Vanilli Redux, Szechuan style.
I know its done all over, but it still pisses me off to hear about it being done to a child, let alone one so young and beautiful. Not only was she embarassed, but it was world wide embarassment! To do that to a child is horrible, I could never humiliate a child like that.
Its not just about this girl. I have a sister who’s spent some time in China and is currently working in Taiwan, and she pointed out to me that China won’t let foreigners adopt special needs kids. Anyone out there adopt a special needs kid from China or know of someone who did?
Couldn’t they have used those fake teeth? Like the press on veneers? Or would they have fallen out?? Oh god, I have seen way too much of VH1 “Little Miss Beauty” or w/e! LOL!
That’s horrible. Did you hear China’s statement? I mean, that little girl is going to grow up missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity because she wasn’t deemed cute enough. And she is really cute.. all little girls look like that before their baby teeth fall out.. or in my case stay that way until braces! LOL!
most special needs kids are ‘selectively reduced’ so there aren’t ahuge number to begin with due to ultrasound and amnios. many of them end up in government funded centers and special orphanages.
This is terrible, but maybe this will wake other people up about how shallow this world has become now.
I don’t know what was so unattractive with the original singer, anyway. She appears to be perfectly cute to me, but that’s beside the point. On the other hand, this poor girl who lip-synched doesn’t know any better, and I sympathize for her. These are TWO LITTLE GIRLS.
It’s really sad that children are now being affected with their image this way. It’s probably for the better of this child’s well being, but imagine what complexes she’s going to have in the long run for basically being told “You’re a good singer, but not cute enough”.
This is a reflection of the western world as well. The other day I was at work, and these two tiny little girls no older than about aged seven or eight were complaining about how they were too fat. My cousin is eight years old, and is already complaining about her body.
This shit is becoming emotionally detrimental, and it needs to stop.
There is no way in the world this could ever happen in the U.S.A as some hate mongers have commented – China’s actions on this are reprehensible. I can’t imagine any other country doing this, except maybe North Korea or Iran.
“See? I told you you should brush your teeth often!”
-Mom of the crooked-teeth girl
That little girl Yang Peiyi is absolutely adorable. Her picture will become one of the background images for my desktop. She has a beautiful voice and her parents should be proud of her performance.
“PUH-LEASE… ashlee simpson’s allowed to do it on national TV but a 9 year old can’t??”
Are you serious? Artist knowledge vs. national appearance to the outside world. I guess those Chinese gymnasts enjoyed being yanked from their families at 3, to be put into gymnastic factories.
The lip job is not even the point of this…it is their willingness to exploit a girl for national pride. The bottom line is, the IOC was wrong for putting these games in China, just like they would be wrong to choose Chicago for 2016. There is an Olympic ‘Ideal’ not an Olympic acting job.
Why is this a controversy?
American “entertainers” have been lip-syncing @ Super Bowls & just about everywhere else since before the great wall…..it’s called production.
We are living in a glass house when it comes to nit-picking’ over China’s efforts to create an image to the world community. What i find curious is out of such a grand population, they couldn’t find a cute, little girl who CAN sing? ….. Are all their singers ugly? How many ugly singers do we have? Do we embrace them? If so, how? Where are they? Why are they not making millions of dollars like the attractive singers?
We really embarrass us sometimes.
The original litle girl is cuter.
Has the Chinese govt. pulled the video you posted about the lip synch of the little girls at the opening ceremony? It appears that it is “no longer available.” China is famous for blocking websites and content. Or did you pull it out yourselves?
For all the people who think the switcharoo is normal practice anywhere, I hope their high school photos get replaces with a better looking one. Yes, the media does it all the time and they get vilified for it. Guess being yourself isn’t good enough. It just shows the two faces of China, which one do you want to see?
The sanctimonious, bleeding hearts on this page are killing me. For God sakes folks, grab hold of a little reality. Relax a bit. Get a life of your own & bathe your self in it.
8) i feel really bad for both these girls, and personally i think theyre both beautiful, but it’s unfortunate that something like this would have to happen. Even if they thought it was absoloutely neccissary to pull the little girl from singing, they definitely could have done it in a nicer way. They might have said, “you have such a beautiful voice, and you have such a beautiful face”. But I really think that it wasn’t neccissary for them to pull that little girl from singing. And i definitely think that China isn’t the only country where something like this would happen. Beauty doesn’t always have to be totally flawless all the time, those girls are both beautiful.
“Japan and South Korea did the same during the World Cup because they realised that it wasn’t feasible for many countries to have huge numbers of fans attend.”
The big difference this time is there were people worldwide clamoring for tickets and were told that everything was sold out. Having empty seats because they aren’t selling is not the same thing as having huge blocks of seating occupied by CCP members who don’t even use them.
“and people can hold two contradictory ideas in their minds and believe them both
…..well, intelligent people anyway”
Actually, intelligent people recognize a logical fallacy when they see one.
as for ADP:
I don’t know about what anyone else thinks, but I cannot stand the inane ravings of such a pompous pseudo-intellectual. Bores me to tears every time. Post when you have something readable and factual to say.
I absolutely agree that the prettiest prevail. HOWEVER, the way this was done, at the last minute, was cruel, hurtful and devestating to a young girls self-esteem. I’m sure the US would have chosen the more perfect looking one also, HOWEVER, the US would not let the winner of a grueling contest go that far. To pull the rug out from under her at the last minute would never happen. And the US would NEVER tell a child that it was because she wasn’t pretty enough of presentable or her teeth weren’t perfect. The US isn’t quite that cruel.
To SHERI; You are right,the USA isn’t quite that cruel,they will only change your teeth in the magazine,like they did to a mother of six children.
A Chinese man, somewhere in the Chinese government, has made a decision that this little girl was not good looking enough to sing at the opening ceremonies. Shame and disgrace upon him!! I curse him!! I am old now and frankly don’t care if this hurts his feelings or not! (lol) No one cares how the atheletes look as long as they can compete well. It’s a sad day for all girls and women, and I think every woman out there has felt the pain and rejection based on lack of good enough looks. It used to be you had to be beautiful in your 20’s and 30’s; however, the men who run the world now demand physical perfection in women over 40 and now even seven year old girls (babies practically) are carefully scrutinized and rejected as faulty because men don’t like their looks. Where will it end? This will follow her the rest of her life. Shame on China!
i use to enjoy watching the Olympics. its a joke.
People with true vocal talent should not have to go faceless and nameless. This is wrong. I wish the real singers would start refusing to lend their voice to some cutesy “lip synch” person.
Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Ashlee Simpson…none of these stupid pop tarts can sing either. They all lip synch.
They either have size 2 bodies, or just really large breasts and so they can be famous “singers” and pay others to do their singing for them.
They are sorry excuses for “singers”.
I also find it amusing how they get mad when some magazines refuse to airbrush their images. They want to believe fairy tales about themselves. When they start aging, its going to hit them really hard.
The real singer must have suffered a severe blow to her confidence. I mean, being told that your voice is perfect but you’re just not cute enough and you need to be replaced… Ouch, that’s got to hurt.
I hope this won’t happen again; one can only imagine how truly heart-broken the real singer was, despite saying she is proud she got to sing the anthem in the Olympics.
7-year-old Yang Peiyi is a darling little girl with a beautiful voice; her talent will endure and she is to be admired.
The ones to be pitied are the old men, the politicians who tried to polish their country’s image by falsely ‘improving” her performance. They embarrassed themselves and their country by their foolish actions.
Best wishes to you, Yang Peiyi, and Thank You for sharing your gift of song with the world.
I cannot believe some of these comments. This was not a cerial commercial or a soap ad in a magazine. Stating this happens all the time is TOTALLY FALSE! Where has this happened before on a world event to “pull” someone that had in fact “EARNED” her position and be replaced because of a GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL”S DEMAND!NOWHERE!!
Movies and TV are different, its called ENTETAINMENT and is pre-planned. These were live operning ceremonies, and if looks were such a problem why didn’t the goverment send her to a dentist and stylist before the ceremony, they had plenty of time. NOPE , they decided 15 minutes before the show, this turns out to be just another of many examples of a TOTALLITARIAN STYLE Governmet trying to show how perfect they are. How they try to appear to be the worlds best using deception from the openning ceremony to closing ceremony. THIS just shows CHINA’s TRUE COLORS!
she is just so cute .. guess it would be a good memory for here when she grow up and look back at how she sang and the world listening to her
“We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance.”
Shame on you Chen.I agree that the event organizers are free to choose a cute girl with a pixie smile to represent the young generation of china or some thing like that. We are used to see such a good looking children in all the ceremonies and events but what happened breachs the humain rights of children.
A person must be ripe enough to accept to lend her voice to someone whatever the importance of the ceremony.