Say It Ain’t So Miaoke: China Accused of Faking Nine-Year-Old’s Song at Opening Ceremony

Internet sites have made a startling accusation. They are reporting that Lin Miaoke (林妙可)，the ultra-cute nine-year-old girl who sang “Paean to the Motherland” when the Chinese national flag entered the Bird’s Nest Stadium during the Olympics Opening Ceremony, was a fake. They claim to have an interview from a Chinese official admitting that they swapped out the real child for a cuter child to make the scene perfect. The real angelic voice allegedly belonged to Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜), a student of the Attached Primary School of Beijing University, who was not cute enough for prime time.

In an interview, the official is reportedly to have admitted the swap:

Chen Qigang: The first condition was that the director wants the image to be very cute. We selected about ten children… Then we had to choose one from those who had a good image who can sing well…

We chose one ten-year-old child, whose voice was really good. All the rehearsals were using her singing… In the end the director thought her image was not the most appropriate, she was a little too old… so regrettably, we had to let her go.

Then, as we chose another singer, the standard was that she needs to be seven years old. Lin Miaoke (林妙可) was one of them, another was Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜), and there were others.

Then we went to the Central People’s Radio Station to do the recording…

Finally we made the decision that the voice we would use was Yang Peiyi’s.

If true, it would be the perfect opening ceremony for the propagandized country. It is not reality but appearance (the perfect appearance) that matters.

It is like the scene in Singing in the Rain, where Lina pretends to sing at the opening of The Dancing Cavalier while Kathy signs behind the curtain. The only problem is that in the movie, Don, Cosmo and R.F. pull back the curtain to give Kathy the full credit.

Next, athletes will be swapped at the medal ceremonies for Chinese models who can better represent the Chinese ideal.

Everyone is looking forward to the closing ceremony featuring Milli Vinilli singing the Chinese national anthem.

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