Changing China

Olympics has an Audrey Hepburn moment

First it was the fireworks (see below). Now it turns out the opening ceremony to the Beijing Games had its very own Audrey Hepburn moment.

Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, who was celebrated across China as the angelic voice with the adorable face who sang “Ode to the Motherland” at Friday’s ceremony, was merely a photogenic stand-in for the real singer, who was rejected because of her appearance.

A director of the opening ceremony, Chen Qigang, said Lin’s voice was overdubbed by the singing of the real child singer Yang Peiyi.

This is nothing new in the world of showbiz, of course. Marni Nixon provided the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Deborah Kerr in The King and I. (Would you call her an unsung hero?)

But a search on Google Blogs found a lot of critical reaction. Here are a couple of representative examples:

New York Chique: Frankly, I think that’s disgusting. Honestly- they’re 7 and 9 years old! So young! and I can’t believe that they picked one little Chinese girl over another. In my opinion, they were both adorable.

Charles Lee: For me, I think it is another social commentary on the value of image over substance in humanity.

There’s an excellent piece by Jo Ling Ken, including some Chinese reaction, at Dispatches from China.

Does it matter if TV firework ‘footprints’ were a fix?

Organisers created a bit of a storm this morning when they revealed that parts of the spectacular firework display at the opening ceremony had been pre-recorded.

See this from Karolos Grohmann’s story on Reuters:

“Some footage had been produced before the opening ceremony to provide theatrical effect,” Beijing Games Executive Vice President Wang Wei told reporters.

Among the sections that were pre-produced were parts of a stunning fireworks display across the city, a series of fireworks “footprints” that led to the Bird’s Nest stadium where the four-hour extravaganza was staged.

A night-time aerial shot traced the consecutive explosions on the ground as they approached the stadium. “There were footprints of fireworks,” Wang said. “Some of them were genuinely produced. Some maybe were used from previously recorded material.”

This news clearly annoyed at least some people, judging by reaction around the Web, but does it really matter if organisers used a few tricks to ensure the TV viewing public would see a perfect show?

Wasn’t there also a suspicion that organisers of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona had a trick up their sleeve to ensure the final lighting of the Olympic cauldron (with the archer, you’ll remember) passed off without a hitch?

In any case, the opening ceremony in Beijing wasn’t even shown live in the United States… 

A little drizzle won’t frazzle Olympic ceremony (Update)

Olympic organisers are praying that it doesn’t rain on the athletes’ parade at next Friday’s opening ceremony, but a little drizzle might in fact add some fizzle to the lavish show.

“The lighting effects will be more beautiful with a bit of rain,” said Yves Pepin, a French hi-tech wizard, who is a senior member of the creative team for the 3-1/2 hour extravaganza.

What the team fears is the sort of deluge that can batter the Chinese capital during August. “If it rains a lot then life will get very difficult. We have a plan B if this happens and some parts of the show will have to be downsized, although not cut altogether,” said Pepin, giving nothing more away.

With this in mind, a long range weather forecast released on Sunday provides some hope — there is a 41 percent chance of rain on Aug. 8, but a prolonged drenching is unlikely, according to Beijing’s Meteorological Bureau.

Even if it does rain, most of the 91,000 spectators in the Bird’s Nest will be fine thanks to a broad roof that extends over the seating area. The athletes and performers aren’t quite so lucky because plans for a fully retractable roof were abandoned to save costs, which means the arena is exposed to the elements.

In the nation that invented gunpowder, fireworks look certain to play a major role in the opening and closing ceremonies, but here too, the Chinese are quietly confident that their plans won’t be blown apart by the weather.