NEWS STORY - "real" singer in Beijing not televised because she is "not attractive enough". Am I being over-sensitive to this? I have a 12 year old daughter and I find this to be a frightening and devastating message we are sending to our kids, especially our little girls. Any other opinions on this?

I think you refer to this story:







http://tinyurl.com/65755a

A Chinese politician thought the original child looked ugly, so a more visually appealing child was used as the body double, while a recording of the original child's voice was used. I personally don't think the original child is ugly, and even so, if she has a good voice, let her own face be the one associated with the voice on international TV. The politician did more harm to the image of China with his coldheartedness, than it would have suffered from showing a so called ugly Chinese child to the world.

The original child, who's voice was used, is shown in the insert.

In the United States, (and indeed, in the rest of the Western world) after all the indignant huffing and puffing, the universally understood and accepted response would be: "Well, that's show biz."

Generally speaking it's the pretty people who are featured in favorable public relations forums. That may not seem fair, but that's the way the world turns.

Yopie3, I believe it was wrong to replace the real singer with another girl.It is the voice that it is most important.
In the Sydney Olympics where the idea of using a young girl, came from, we used the real singer.

I'll bet that was a real victory for homely girls, right? I mean this girl you're talking about (13-year-old Nikki Webster) was 4 years old when she first appeared professionally on stage. She taped her first TV commercial at the age of 6. At 7 she was a member of the cast of Aladdin and the next year she was in the ensemble cast of an Australian production of Cinderella.

So what I'm saying is it's pretty obviously she was chosen to participate in the opening ceremonies in Sydney based on her voice in spite of being butt ugly. Oh wait! I might have gotten that wrong. I'm sure what I meant to say was that I'll bet the planners of the Sydney Summer Games chose Nikki for the Opening Ceremonies because in addition to being damned cute, she could sing, too. You suppose?

Ah.... c'est la vie, as they say. You know... them's the breaks, kid, show biz can be cruel, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, it's a hard knock life, things are tough all over, and start all over again.

Perhaps this just reveals that I am a cynical and hard-shelled individual, but... it's not that big a deal. Is it? I mean, if this is the worst thing that has ever happened or ever will happen to that kid, she lives a charmed life, right? She's a cute enough kid, and she'll get over the horrific emotional scarring of being bumped for a prettier gal at her age.

Look at it from this angle: the Olympics are the most unimaginably huge marketing opportunity ever for China, they are all dolled up in their goin' to meetin' clothes and putting their best foot forward. They have their shoes and belt buckles spit-shined. All dirty and unattractive things have been spirited out of site for the duration. They want to WOW the world. Part of WOWing the world, from a television production angle, is picking beautiful people to appear on camera. They made an aesthetic decision to go with a child model that they thought would impress television viewers more than the actual child singer. It happens all the time in show biz, the Chinese didn't make this stuff up.

Now... was it cruel and heartless to take this away from the little girl at the last minute? Well of COURSE it was! How dare they!

The only possible way to stop television producers, directors, and casting agents to stop this heinous behavior is... to stop encouraging them by responding to the plasticized models in advertisements and television shows. Don't buy the products. Don't want the shows. Let them know you won't stand for them setting and enforcing their own personal standard of beaty on you, your children, and the whole American public! YEAH! WE RULE! THEY SUCK! WOOHOOOO!


You aren't gonna do it. Are you.

And THAT'S why we saw the singer replaced with the more "beautiful" lip syncher. Any questions?

geeze.. I'm just pleased to see little girls surviving in China..

Lip-synch is a standard technique applied in show business universally when a person who is required to sing, can't. In fact, in movies, even performers who could sing, like Judy Garland, lip-synched for technical reasons.

Suggesting that the Olympic ganes are both athletic competition and show business is certainly true.

BUT...

One of the posts mentions that a Chinese politician didn't think the girl was pretty enough to be televised, so she was replaced with someone more in line with the pol's taste in physical appearance.

Business as usual, some influential know-nothing makes a stupid decision and that becomes how things are.

Replacing the girl in fact does a disservice to China, since it makes them seem superficial at best, deceptive at worst.

It's fear drivern as it so often is. The Chinese pol was afraid that the little girl wasn't cute enough, and wouldn't make a good impression on the worldwide audience.

This happens every day in the movie, television and stage arenas. If the Olympics are just a show, then it was a good marketing decision.

This is true, but it leaves out a major difference between China and the West. If the Olympics were held in a Western nation, the producers in charge of the pageantry would make the decisions as to who did what. However, the Beijing Olympics are, undoubtedly, under the control of the Chinese government. So in this case, with a contest to select the singer, the pageant organizers would have been powerless to change the "program" even if the chosen winner was bald with 3 eyes and no teeth at all. It would take the intervention of someone IN the government to make that choice.

However, it's conceivable that whoever was in charge of this part of the program might have quietly whispered in the right ear to get done what he felt needed to be done.


It's certainly more than fair to say the opening ceremonies are ALL show.

When I'd told my husband of this story (feeling rather upset about it myself, since I find the authentic singer to be cute), he replied: "So it's the same over there as it is over here." I guess he called it rightly. But it still bothers me because of the message that such "decisions" send to impressionable children.

I also think the real singer is cute as the proverbial 'button.' But her looks are more Chinese while the older girl's are somewhat more 'Western.' Maybe that was the point.

I would have preferred the real singer since she was the one with the best voice.

Welcome back,apaul! I'm so glad to see you.

Are the Olympics everythiing your country hoped for?

I am also stunned by this news, and I search this information through google and baidu, with both I found the information is blanked off by China's media(actually by China's government).


I have no opinion if directors used pre-recorded voice of the televised girl,but using another girl's voice seems rather uncalled for.It denied truth which is the most beautiful spirit of mankind.

Probably, as all you said,it's just a show not the reality.

apaul, how much trouble will FM get into if we publish the info here that is blacked out for you in China? And how much trouble will you get in if you read it?

I'm asking for a friend.

From what I've read, the Great Firewall of China is easily bypassed.

If they don't catch you.

If they do, I'll be wearing the sweaters you've been sentenced to 30 years of manufacturing for your conspiracy in the plot to overthrow the Chinese government by bypassing the firewall.

The funny thing about this debate of who sang the song when the Chinese flag was raised was that nobody mention the words of the song.

The song glorified the Communist perid in China. It was perhaps the only part of the Opening ceremony that refer to this period of Chinese history. I see nothing wrong with this but are sad that China felt it had to adopt western values in choosing the girl.

Those of us who visited China in the 1970s remember when we were taken to schools and preschools to be entertained by cute but earnest children singing "We'll be successors to the Communist cause".

I hope the real singers apears at the closing ceremony. Also welcome back Apaul. I think rather than tell him about our society some of us are more interested in him telling us about Chinese society.
If you are interested in videos and photos of past Olympics see my website.Aus22.bigblog.com.au

In the US, we would have picked a pretty girl who could sing and avoided this whole mess.

Like Natalie Wood?

What are you talking about? Both girls are oriental.....neither are more occidental looking than the other.

lol, CG, no, but Wood was making a movie and this kid was representing the best of China to the world.

So in fact it's China admitting their best is not that good.

Oh...I know it! Surely China could have found a child who could sing well and also be telegenic... Politics play a big role in entertainment. Just check out Pia Zadora's career...

Hey! I thought she was great in "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."

She married right.

How did Pia Zadora creep into this thread? Didn't she have a non-career?

She must have been sleep-posting.

I had to confess that a local paper today reveal that when the Sydney Symphony Orcestra played at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games they mined a sound track made by the Melboune Symphony Orchestra.

We have good muscians in Melbourne but they are too ugly for TV.

It was probably more of a problem of getting adequate acoustics for the television audience. If there were serious echoes, or an inability to hear a section of the orchestra for technical reasons, then using a music track solves that problem.

But they should have probably used one of their own recordings, not that of another city's orchestra.

The girl in the inset looks more like a real little girl in spite of needing some dental work maybe...it's in the eyes...the soul of the village youth. The substitute looks too made up...the Chinese version of a Jon Benet Ramsey. She looks more Westernized. Evidently, the party pol who made the decision did not have Mao's peasant revolutionary worker image in mind.