Yes, you and me, were all victims of China’s devious plan for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games. First thing first – I have nothing against s the whole country, nor did I take any stance on the Tibetian independence or the Taiwan breakaway hoohah. I simply find the whole deception, the entire trickery horribly revolting, disappointing, despicable and shameful:
Fake Fireworks
Beijing Olympics - Fake, CGI Generated Fireworks
The authenticity of the fireworks footage where a helicopter supposedly flies over the city of Beijing and 29 footprint-shaped fireworks light up the sky, one second each, signifying the 29 Olympiads held before Beijing Olympics were thrown into the limelight after a news report revealed the truth behind it – CGI effects.
Of course the revelation caused a huge uproar among the media, the famous (one of which includes Chinese architect Ai Weiwei who helped to design the Bird Nest 1) and the online community. In rebuttal, the Games organisers claim that:
- the poor visibility on Friday would have affected the view of the firework footprints 2, and
- the helicopter pilot who would have flown overhead to film the fireworks would have been “at risk by making him try to follow the firework route” 3
And I strongly feel that if you can’t get the real footage of the fireworks, then don’t even think of airing it. There is no point faking the footages and claiming later that it isn’t wrong since the fireworks were really fired off – what you gave the international TV audience is just a CGI mockup of how the real fireworks will look like.
Broadcasters from all around the world should not be held responsible for the screening of that 55 seconds of fake CGI fireworks – considering that the ruling party controls China’s media outlets with an iron fist, it’s not surprising to know that international broadcasters were only provided with one and only feed by the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting organisation.
What really made me fuming mad is the comment made by the triumphant lead animator:
The dupe was revealed by China’s Beijing Times. Speaking to the paper, the man responsible for the animation said he was pleased with the result.
“Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks,” Gao Xiaolong told the newspaper.
“But most of the audience thought it was filmed live – so that was mission accomplished.”
The designers even added some haziness to simulate the polluted Beijing skyline.
Broadcasters around the world had no choice but to show the footage because it all came from one feed provided by Beijing Olympic Broadcasting – the organisation responsible for filming the games 4.
But it’s always the right side that gets the last laugh – I’m loving every single bit of Mr Ai’s sarcasm-filled criticism and cynicism of the faked fireworks display:
Writing on his blog, Mr Ai described the ceremony as “a recycling of the rubbish of fake classical culture tradition; a sacrilegious visual garbage dump and an insult to the spirit of liberty; low class sound play that’s just noise pollution”.
He was directly critical of China’s ruling communist party, characterising the ceremony as “a showcase of the reincarnation of the Marxist imperialism; the ultimate paragon of an all embracing culture of fascist totalitarianism; an encyclopaedia that encompasses total defeat in intellectual spirit.” 5
That’s definitely a mouthful but thanks for setting things straight!
Lip Syncing – simply because she’s cute enough
Beijing Olympics - Lip Syncing the 'Ode to the Motherland'
Another shocking news surfaced today, when it was revealed that the girl who sang the song, ‘Ode to the Motherland’ when China’s flag was paraded into the Bird Nest was merely lip syncing to the song originally sang by another not-so-cute girl. Instead of making it clear to the international audience that she is merely lip syncing, the organiser decides to keep mum about it and give NO CREDIT to the original singer behind the song.
Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.
“The reason was for the national interest,” said Chen Qigang, the ceremony’s musical director, in a state radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. … Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects.” 6
I feel that the flawless image comment is horribly unjustified and uncalled for. What really irked me is that they should to make the statement claiming that original singer, Yang Peiyi, was deemed not cute and flawless enough to perform on the international stage – what really determines a person to be able to stand gracefully and rightfully in front of the international audience is being truthful. If you’re merely lip syncing, sorry, but you’ve just made the worst decision ever. You don’t need a good face to captivate people with your voice – if you really have substance, you wouldn’t be lip syncing to another person’s song!
I think the focus of this issue is that she’s lip syncing to somebody else’s song – it wasn’t even her voice! I understand that lip syncing is almost the norm for ultra, A-class important events, just in case anything goes wrong, there’s still a recorded version of it. But this is where the problem lies – she lip synced to a song she did not even sing, and the Chinese organisers just KEPT MUM about it! They did not give any credit to the original singer behind the song. That is just so disappointing and shameful – while China battled to close down shops and street peddlers selling pirated music and films, they did not even manage to set a good example on the grandest Games Opening Ceremony to date. Shame on you!
Beijing Olympics – from fake fireworks to lip syncing….
At first, China’s Beijing Olympics Games organiser drew criticism for admitting that they’ve inserted a 55-second CGI clip of the fireworks during the supposedly ‘live’ broadcast to the international TV audience.
And now, it’s clear that the gi…
Hmmm.. .another case of image over substance, the end justifies the mean. Work of great marketing ? Really sad to hear that it is make-believe effect. Where is the pride of the Chinese people ?
after bitching all over about the fakeness, we can now go home and watch superman, seeing a guy with red underwear outward flying around and we choose to believe it is not fake. LOL
Hmmm I don’t quite get the second part of your comment but I guess it’s sarcasm? This post isn’t all about bitching over the issue of China’s deceptive ways but rather, calling attention for it. It is sad to see that they actually have to work a year for the CGI effects of the mockup fireworks display just to get the helicopter’s perspective – they might be able to save that lump sum of money by filming on ground. They’re trying to make the Olympics fabulous, yes, but I don’t agree with China’s extravagant ways to celebrating it (which involves deception, since some acts are unachievable due to safety reasons).
In addition, I find that the call for a flawless girl to be a representative of China for the games unjustified because what we really need is a truthful representation – and not replacing someone just because the organisers think that she’s too ugly to get on stage.
oh my. i hate lip sync! if it is your own songs, nothing much for me, he/she might sick. but, lip-sync other’s song it totally out of my may. durgh. to Lin, here you go, a big letter “L”. poor Peiyi :sad:
Yea you’re right. Lip syncing is acceptable if the person IS the singer and it’s during huge events when everything has to be running as planned. The problem is that China replaced the girl with a ‘flawless’ looking one and did not acknowledge the original singer. Shame on them!
I KNEW THE FIREWORKS WERE FAKED! But my friends they laughed at me and said I’m a Jakun to not believe in China’s capability of doing this, so I had to accept it but still insisted in saying that the graphics just looked unreal. :evil:
About the girl who sang the song, damn, it was quite obvious that she was just lip syncing, but who would expect that she isn’t the original singer. Gosh. I nicely gave credit to her for her sweet recorded voice and said it’s totally understandable for such a young girl to be lip syncing on the spot but… :sad: IT’S SO UNFAIR TO THE ORIGINAL SINGER!
SilverIsles last blog post..My 3 weeks break has officially ended…
Same here! My first reaction was – it can’t be true! It’s just quite impossible to get a perfect shot with a single flyby, and my friends joked that I was being paranoid. It just looked too real to be true, and the rule of thumb is that when something appears to be too real to be true, it probably is! I realised what made it unreal is the occasional camera shake of the sparks and that they seem to stray from the expected paths / location three dimensionally. In other words, it looks as if the sparks were IMPOSED on the film rather than being part of the scene.
I knew she was lip syncing but then I never knew that she wasn’t the original singer of the song! It’s just ironic that while the Chinese government spent so much money and effort on clearing the streets of Beijing from pirated CD peddlers and shops, they failed to do the simplest thing of acknowledging the original singer on the world’s grandest Opening Ceremony to date. How tragic! Obviously the plan of achieving perfection backfired :twisted:
As I’ve stated before, I’m pretty OK with the CGI-ed fireworks issue. The point is that they did really blast those fireworks that night. I would rather watch a CGI mocked footage of those fireworks than miss it out totally.
But of course, it baffles me that they could’ve just spend the effort on mounting cameras on strategic locations where the ‘footsteps’ fireworks are expected to fire up. Or position a chopper higher and film the whole thing 10,000 feet or so above. Would’ve looked awesome too. =)
The lip-syncing issue though, is pretty outrageous. The original girl who sang that song should be given due credit. It’s very sad that they decide to replace her with another girl.
What you said about the lip-syncing pretty much echo my opinion. It’s really sad.
They did blast the fireworks that night but if the sky is too hazy for all 29 footprints to be seen, then let it be. I don’t want to see them fabricating the whole fireworks display for the sake of grandeur and perfection. Individual cameras for each fireworks will be a great idea but I guess the Chinese government would love to have the night time skyline as the background to show the world how developed Beijing is. And it will be dangerous to fly at a higher height to capture to fireworks, plus the fireworks might be to small to be seen.
I feel that the original singer should be given the credit or acknowledged in one way or another! It’s just too unfair to her! I’m actually quite okay with lip syncing because I understand that for such a huge event, there’s no room for error.
Teddy, you have to admit, the girl is pretty cute. After all, this is the global stage. China needs to project itself as country really competent rather than introducing cheapest and unsafe products to the market. Although what I dispute is rather unrelated, it is, you just have to be mindless enough to understand. LoL.
I’m perfectly ok with the fake firework. Less smoke = Less pollution. Plus it’s safer, since there’s no cylinder (or can) involved.
:grin: hehe, nice view NH. yups, from positive view, they might just thought about the pollution. so, it end up with everything fake. hahaha
Regarding presenting the suitable girl for the international audience, beauty is indeed an important factor of consideration but I strongly feel that she’s just a kid – and not a grown up model so it isn’t really necessary to select the best looking one. Plus, the organiser should have acknowledged the real singer behind the song. If they want to replace the singer on the Opening Ceremony, they should’ve got her to prerecord the song and not just simply use the one of the original singer’s.
In fact, the fake fireworks were not replacements of the real ones – they did fire the real fireworks but China decides to feed international broadcasters with the fake CGI video. The only real ‘footprint’ fireworks were the ones fired outside the stadium. It was pretty obvious the previous ones are fake because of the colour difference – while the real one appeared brick-red, the fake ones were bright orange-yellow.
China has major human rights issues! What are they exposing young Chinese children to? That its bad to be “not pretty’?
My latest post covers more on China’s human rights issues. You might want to take a look at it.
starwishs last blog post..China and its quest to achieve the picture perfect image
They’re imposing that ridiculous beauty standard of little girls now… as expected. I just read your post, and it’s a great read! Isn’t it sad that the government have to demolish, displace and evict so many innocent Beijing civilians just to make way for the stadiums and competition venues?
The issue here is honesty. If China being honest with these fake fireworks, and gave credit when it is due, people would not be so critical of China. I am ashamed, I was one of the the gullible idiots watching the ‘live telecast’ went gaga over it. :twisted:
Hey thanks for the trackbacks and links ;) I greatly appreciate that! Yea I think the problem lies at the fact that China deceived us in their desperate attempt to make everything perfect!
I think you are missing the point here. I sense anti China sentiments in your delivery. You are painting a one sided view and that’s highliting the negativities. Where are the positivies? What about the flying suspended runner across the CGI scroll? So should he be flying unsuspended? Come on. You are focusing on the technicalities and little details to bring forth the ugliness. An event of such grandeur, a child lip-synching to avoid off pitch problems…I don’t see the issue at all. As long as not ALL the performers are doing that! As for her being NOT the original singer, is this really SUCH a big deal? They needed a girl to fit the image. And if you ask me, both girls are just as cute. Unless you are there to pick and find the faults, then I would say YES. Prejudice when it comes to beauty exists everywhere in the world. In Hollywood, modelling competitions. THey mentioned they wanted someone who could exempify the spirit of Olympics not that the latter girl was more beautiful. I can see both pictures and I don’t think the latter one is more beautiful. However if u ask me, I notice that the latter one has a darker skin tone and is not as fair as the first one. Mind you China has been trying to be ultra sensitive to the minorities for this event. The mascots are tibetan origin too fyi. WHy have you NOT highlighted this? Now if you wrote an article of the positives And negatives, I would be further intrigued. At this point, I find that you are not a very open minded person, this article fueled by what seems to be anti chinese propaganda. So sorry, not impressed……
Fact: Julie Andrews sang the part of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Fact, because Julie Andrews was technically speaking a far better singer and Audrey hepburn more beautiful than Julie Andrews. This is how our world works at times. It may not be fair. But it happens. And this IS the olympics, for a young girl to lip-sync is NOT a big deal to be focused on. In fact for the entire musical, Audrey Hepburn was lip-synching. Only her real voice was used when she read her lines. This classic musical has been a hit and is now an actual classic dvd. If it were such an atrocity, lipsynching, do you think it would still exist? So please. spare me your biased rhetoric!
If you want to be spared of my so-called biased rhetoric (quoting you), why read and leave a comment at the first place? The art of irony, you’ve mastered it. Congratulations!
I’m not anti-China or whatsoever. I’m just disappointed with the fact that the LIED to us, in a rather obvious way (thank you China Press for revealing the fake fireworks). I have to admit that I’m impressed with the grandeur and scale of the event – from the dancing Chinese typefaces, the spinning globe, the flying fairies and the suspended Olympic hoops.
Yea I know prejudice exists, just like how you’ve immediately jumped to the conclusion that I’m biased against China and yadda yadda yadda, but Olympics is supposed to be the representation of human beings, regardless of their skin colour, religion, nationality, ethinicity, language and gender, as a single collective consciousness. So why bring out the PERFECT image of a girl, when we all know that beauty isn’t defined by just how a person look?
I would like to point out that you’re gravely wrong to say that it’s completely fine to find another singer to lip sync to the song of the original singer. I’m actually OKAY with the lip syncing part because I understand that for such huge events, there’s no room for error. But when it comes to replacing the original singer with a cuter girl, and then making remarks of the new replacement being ‘flawless’ and NOT acknowledging the original singer of the song, that’s a definite nono. Respect copyrights before you try to say anything so unfiltered next time.
I knew you weren’t impressed, and I don’t find any reason why should I tailor my post to specifically IMPRESS you. Ideas tend to be polarised for such topics, so let’s celebrate diversity instead. If you choose to be mad at me just because I’ve written something you don’t agree about, then be it. It’s up to you.
Anyway, thanks for the comment :) it’s an eye opener, definitely.
DAMN!!!! You dont say??!! I was totally fooled hook, line n sinker :shock:
I was so bedazzled by the Opening ceremony that I promoted it so heavily among my friends. The fireworks thing is understandable, I think. The other issue of the lip-syncing girl and not giving credit to the original singer is SHAMEFUL!!!! :sad:
The Opening Ceremony is definitely an eye opener for me :) in fact, I was okay with the lip syncing part but I find it unethical to replace the original singer without giving her due credit.
[...] I am sure by now many of you already read in the news or around the blogs on the issues surrounding Beijing Olympics spectacular opening ceremony footage. I was browsing Negaraku.net and I saw some blog wrote about it, namely my life 4 hire and teddY-risatioN. [...]
When i was watching the opening ceremony, i can see that the girl lip sync but little did i know that it was another girl’s voice! I really feel bad for the other little girl. She’s cute too! It’s better not to show the footprints fireworks at all than faking it. Very very disappointing! :evil:
Melissas last blog post..Beijing Olympics 2008
Yea same here! It was obvious that she was lip syncing. Even if they didn’t show her singing I knew that it would’ve been the case since for such huge events, they wouldn’t take a chance for things to go wrong. What really disturbs me is that they didn’t give due credit to the original singer and was trying to pass the voice off as the one who lip-synced to it.
hey coussie…read this in the newspaper as well….poor girl…just not fair if u asked me and to do that for such an event and for it to be reported…hhmmmm….i was proud of the opening ceremony when i watched it but with this..it just leave a very bad after taste in the mouth
take care ;)
Agreed. The Opening Ceremony was indeed awesome but it’s sad that the crafty tricks the organisers have used spoiled the whole thing… and now, they are investigating that China falsely reported the ages of the competing gymnasts. If it’s for real, China will lose up to four gold medals and a dozen silvers and bronzes.
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some singaporeans are really shameless people. they think west is best and want to abandon their own roots. these people probably haven’t lived in the west or even been to the west. they dont know how life is really over there, and in their minds they imagine it’s like heaven. shame on these people…
@JXC: You and your over-generalisations. Read everything carefully, thoroughly, give it more thought then speak.
p/s: I’m a Malaysian Chinese and have nothing to do with living in Singapore. So what if I berate the Chinese media for all the deception and the government for their wrongdoings? If they’re done it wrong, then be it.
Shame on you too, for all your assumptions.