You know, while I was watching the opening ceremonies I thought to myself that it seemed like only "pretty" people were involved. I'm not too surprised by it. They didn't spend 300 million dollars to have some ugly did ruin it for them! Juuuuust kidding...pretty messed up when you think about it, but again, not surprising.

That's baffling to me. In all seriousness, there is no such thing as an ugly child... not to mention a child with a voice like that!

No, she wasn't. Because of the accoustics there was a slight sound delay......as there was with all announcements and music sounds on the main sound system.

Considering the fireworks were all computer generated that doesn't surprise me. That's right...all those fire works you saw on TV...didn't really happen at all. They spent a year programming everything right down to the wobbling of the camera to make it look like it was being shot from a helicopter....it was all faked....!!!!

And they say WE'RE shallow in the western world.

Kind of sickening. From the LA Times: BEIJING -- For those of us who thought there was something weird about Beijing’s flawless-but-sterile opening ceremony, well, we were right. I knew something was strange when the Chinese and Olympic flags blew dramatically in a breeze that did not exist anywhere else in the suffocating National Stadium. Turns out, they were powered by special devices in the flagpoles. I also thought it was odd that, while everybody back home was praising the fireworks displays, those of us in the stadium saw nothing more than your average Friday night post-Angels-game display. Well, turns out, many of the fireworks seen on television were digitally created because, according to officials, the smog was too bad for anyone to see the real ones anyway. If that wasn’t bad enough, now comes the news that even the only truly human part of the ceremony was fabricated. That tiny, red-dressed, 9-year-old girl named Lin Miaoke who so touchingly sang "Ode to the Motherland"? It was an ode to a fakery. The voice actually belonged to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, but poor Peiyi was not deemed cute enough for a world audience, so Lin lip-synched to Peiyi’s recorded voice. The saddest thing being, Chinese officials actually publicly bragged about making the switch. "After several tests, we decided to put Lin Miaoke on the live picture while using Yang Peiyi’s voice," said musical director Chen Qigang in an interview with Beijing Radio. "The reason for this is that we must put our country’s interests first. The girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expressions and the great feeling she can give to the people." So a child with an incredible voice gets shoved aside because she is not "flawless" enough. So the biggest human hit of the opening ceremony is not a human at all, but a recording. Remember all this in a couple of weeks when IOC officials will surely commend China for staging what might be the most efficient Olympics in history. Remember this great machine comes at an ever greater human price. -- Bill Plaschke http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/beijing-ceremon.html

On one level I find it hilarious; it's an inadvertent homage to the West. We were doing that back in the day, with Milli Vanilli. We even did that recently with Obama Girl. On the other level, it's kind of sad. Aren't buck-toothed children cute?

I think it's stupid, nobody has the right to do such a thing

That is very typical of the Chinese attitude to the face they wish to show to the world.

Typical modern society.

I think that is very horrible to say about a child, and think that there was no reason why the girl with the voice could not sing. Thts just discrimnation, who has the right to decide wether someone is pretty or ugly?

It's China. I'd have been shocked if they hadn't done this. This is the same government that crushed college students under tanks for having the audacity to demand free speech, so picking a prettier child to lip sync the anthem is nothing.

I thought it was pretty shitty Sara instead of "more suitable" they were really saying the singer wasn't pretty enuff

Perhaps they'll change the nation's name to the "Pretty People's Republic of China". ;)

Very sad. The little girl who actually did the singing was sooo cute. We would never have criticised her.

I think its a terrible burden to put on a small child. No child is ugly. But that little girl with the beautiful voice is going to feel ugly for the rest of her life.

I don't think they'll stop at anything in their attempt to prove themselves during the olympics. If this is something that they openly admit to than I'd hate to know the things that they don't want us to know about. I apologize in advance for my scepticizm. For people that say the olympics are about athlete's and sports and not politics this should be an eye opener. China is using every aspect of hosting the olympics to boost it's political position. Even more disturbing to me was the response from the Chinese after the American man was stabbed to death. They played it down saying that it was random and that these things happen other places. They actually referenced the recent horrifying murder/decapitation that happened in Manitoba Canada on a greyhound bus. Not only did they just disrespected Canada but the man, Vince Li, who committed the crime was an immigrant from China. It is believed that he is schizophrenic which is not acceptable in China and the most likely reason that he came to Canada in the first place and possibly caused him to be too embarrassed to get treatment in the first place (I know this is a stretch). The whole reason that China "bought" the summer olympics is that they want to get as much good media coverage as possible without changing the way they do things on a fundamental level. I read a very enlightening article recently about China's use of Mobile Execution Chambers starting in 2004 where they carry out alleged arbitrary executions. This is considered an improvement over the firing squads which are still used and replaced beheading/hanging in the mid 1900's that they used before for public executions. It could be possible that Vince Li witnessed beheadings in China as a child. Here's a link to the story about the "death vans". http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm

It really makes me mad. I'm not watching the Olympics anymore.

Ugly duckling? ------ I understand that the Chinese are also getting into eugenics ---to save on health costs.

flawless Olympic karaoke. Let us hope the British bring some sanity back to the Games. The Chinese have created a monster.

I think it is absolutely horrible that this was allowed. I don't think any of the "ugly" Chinese athletes were not allowed to compete so that "pretty" ones could.

Disgusted,I hope the singer goes on to land a big record contract.

Just another example of a closed society. Doesn't surprise me at all. They'll do what they can to project the image of happiness and perfection(?) to the rest of the world. Heck, a bunch of people in that country still think Chairman Mao was a great man! This was a man who was willing to let up to possibly half the people in the country die, if necessary, to achieve 'his' dream.

I think china should be ashamed by that. it was very cruel.

I think that the cult of beauty over substance, which started in Hollywood, USA, has arrived in China.

in Hollywood we use body doubles, voice overs...I think people just feel bad for the little "ugly" girl. If they used an adults voice but still put the cute little girl out there, I don't think anyone would mind.

just goes to show how shallow people can be...I am sure people can over look someones appearence if something beautiful comes out of their voice...

Sound's like Beijing's been taking lessons from Madison Avenue.