Faked Fireworks At The Olympics

Yesterday, two things were announced or leaked that were faked at the Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The first thing were fireworks. Outside the stadium, fireworks in the shape of footprints were fired and each one was closer to the stadium, as if walking. 29 in all. This was faked.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/12/fake.fireworks.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

The other thing wasn't techincally faked, but hidden. The girl that sang "Ode to the Motherland," was in fact lip-singing. The actual singer was hidden away because she wasn't "cute" enough or didn't have perfect teeth.

EDIT: The music organizer said that it was "for the good of the nation."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/oly.kids/index.html?iref=newssearch

 

lol, I guess these two issues have both good and bad reasons behind it.

The whole issue about the safety of news teams seems fairly acceptable so no one should bash China that badly about the fireworks. But the lip-syncing...not very ok with that. Personally, there shouldn't be any type of "image border" so long as that person has the ability to do something...

 

I think publicity stunts like this happen all the time in large public events.

 

I'm more disturbed that the government felt the need to have a 9 year old girl who was 'pretty' and had stage charisma stand up there and lip sync. The 7 year old who sang was really not given credit for what she did and that is kind of sad. I find it hard to believe she looked 'that bad' that she couldn't have stood up there with a voice as nice as that. Pretty lame. This is just showing people that it is more important to worry about image than it is about what's really going on. There's so much fake in the world. Guess we can add China to making more of it in a grand way at the Olympics.

 

quoted for thruth.

i would understand the fireworks.

but not only do they give a bad example worldwide, they give a bad example to something that was portrayed as a way to unite people.

 

The fireworks thing made me lol.

That's really mean for not letting that girl perform because of her looks, I personally think all kids are cute but still, that's just wrong.

 

Well, though the computerized digital fireworks is actually excusable, considering the terrible weather conditions at Beijing and all, it still does disappoint me somewhat... but not as much as the next controversy. However, I shouldn’t be feeling any resentment or ire towards this in the first place as this is something very commonly seen in some Asian countries, well more so in the South Asian countries actually. This lip syncing is something that’s rather commonly seen in the South Asian countries more than anything, but I did not think it was the same in Central Asia. I can actually understand what the Chinese directors were attempting to do and what their goal was, and I think that anyone here can understand what their goal was as well [to plan, create, and execute a flawless show for the opening ceremony], and since culture wise, almost everything was basically similar around the whole Asian continent, I don’t think that the Chinese had expected that such a small thing as lip syncing would prove to be this problematic.

I’m not defending the Chinese directors and government for what they did as it really is a degrading thing, placing image over real talent. However, since culturally it is something that’s seen as common, in their point of view, it was as if it was nothing. Every movie made in Bollywood is a musical, and NONE of the songs in the movie are sung by the actors and actresses. All are done by lip syncing, and the country hold regular competitions [i.e. Indian Idol] to find the next playback singer for such movies. Even for the music videos produced in those countries, the one who is singing and dancing on screen is most likely NOT the one who is actually singing... and I can honestly tell you that not all the singers are all that good looking in the first place and therefore a pretty face is always in need to suit the lovely voice of the singer. However, the difference between that and this Beijing controversy is the fact that Yang Peiyi was not credited for her efforts where the playback singers are in fact credited for in the movies and music videos.

For the USA, this lip syncing is a REALLY big deal for some reason, and it’s beyond my own understanding actually, except for the fact that there was issues with the proper credit given and the whole issue about image and talent. I’ve grown up in the world of lip syncs, so it’s not unnatural to me in a sense, but it still does not help deny the fact that what was done was just wrong.

 

This why i think that china will meet it's end soon because of stuff like this...deception.
I think the only reason they told us this stuff is because someone had discovered it already
and was going to tell the public until the government decided to say it before he did to
make the government look "innocent".

 

The fireworks wasn't much of a deal, but i totally agree with Repliku, what they did with the wee lass was pretty dishonest, n' horrible to the wee lass herself. How did they think she would feel sayin' she wasn't cute enough n' usin' her anyway? She's still cute.

Lol! The music organizer said that it was "for the good of the nation"? Well they've just added some negative reputation by pullin' that.

 

Yeah and by the way they did actually do the fireworks. The people down in the street saw them it's just the fack that the height was unpredictable so they couldn't have a helicopter above them. About the girl singing I didn't see the openeing ceremony but that is just sad. If she was good enough to sing it she should have had center stage. The girl that sang at the last Olimpics at Athens was great and she didn't have perfect teeth.

 

It's not a 'big deal' in America to have lip syncing, Pyro. We know in movies and stuff they do it all the time and on music videos and productions. We expect it there but when an artist decides to sing 'live' on some television show, we expect some things will be prerecorded but not everything. This can even be excused in most cases. However, actual live performance concerts where we pay up to and beyond 100 dollars to go see a band live, we want to hear that they can pull off some of the features they can on their albums without the digital stuff. I don't think that's a big demand there.

What happened to Yang Peiyi is reminiscent of what happened with Milli Vanilli in that there were the two lead guys out front dancing and lip syncing everything while another guy was the real singer but he was fat so he was never even announced as doing anything. So yes, people were upset about that because the real person was not given any credit at all for it until it became exposed. Had they said initially that he was the singer, people wouldn't have cared. We -do- have quite a few shows and such where people lip sync but in the credits they are always mentioned. As for the other lip-syncer, Ashlee Simpson, most of us laughed at it because she did a jig after...which was just stupid. She could have put it together and told the band to play and she'd sing live. Instead she was just silly. Obviously she still makes albums and we know she's the -actual- singer even if she does lip sync. It's not the same here.

The point here is that the little girl who actually sang was given -no- credit at all as even an honorable mention. She's also 7 years old and the other 9 year old girl is adorable and apparently the one who is 7 doesn't look so 'cute' is the reason? I could see the reason being the 7 year old might have gotten stage fright. Her voice may have come off better behind the scenes but to not credit her at all is a shame.

I've watched Bollywood films for years and I do know what you are saying though not all actresses cannot sing or dance. Urmila from China Gate is an example. She's an incredible dancer and has a pretty decent voice as well and is beautiful. She may in some movies get some help but she has incredible talent.

So hopefully that explains it. We aren't as bad as you made us out to be. There are more issues with credit and the Chinese government and people who put this together had a right to do what they wanted here to put on a killer show. All that people expected was the actual singer Yang Peiyi should have been mentioned as it was her voice along with the acting of Lin Miaoke that we were amazed by.

 

Everyone who first saw it thought it was real. I had a feeling it was fake though. They did seem pretty real though. :P

 

China is like a big company, very image oriented. The opening ceremony and the work involved with the Olympics were like their brainchildren productions to show the world that they were in essence a power; it's not a close enough deal, it's a "you do it the way we want it or not even the dogs will know you were once meat" deal. So that's where you get the fireworks thing, they just wanted it they way they planned and wouldn't deal with anything else. It was a matter of pride like the photoshopped missile.

The same kind of idea of perfectionism and over controlling micromanagement goes for the kid as well, when I saw the pictures of the two I knew instantly why they did it. They don't want to be represented by anything less than what they deem worthy and the kid didn't make the cut, she was by no means ugly but she in all honesty didn't live up to their standards. It's as simple as that, the cultural obsession with appearance and image is just how it works there.

 

I heard about that lip syncing one on the news last night I believe. They were saying how the only reason they did it was because it was nationally appealing or something. It was the "image" of the girl singing so perfectly, but in fact it wasn't perfect even from the start.

 

I can't blame any country for staging their olympics whether it be that singing girl or the fireworks. THe Olympics is one of the most reognised human events in the world, every year the country has to out do the previous one by ten or their Olympic games will seem less than impressive.
What I want to see is how England does in 2012, how we will surpass China's opening is beyond me, not to mention we will all be driven under the ground with extra cars and paparazzi in town and knowing the government our taxes will rise to pay for the stadium and other parts of the Olympics. Coming over here is a curse in disguise, the years will become even worse, why we wanted to beat France so much just goes back to our 'friendly' rivalry. It wouldn't surprise me if we faked our Olympics worse than China.

 

Now hold on a second, Repliku... I never deemed the United States [or anyone else] as bad here, and I’d also said that the lack of credit given to the true artist was the main fault there. I was not deeming anyone for making an issue of this incident, because this actually is an important and serious issue. What I meant was that other countries are making an issue out of this, and making it bigger than need be. In China’s point of view, they did it all to make the ultimate opening ceremony, a huge hit, and I’m assuming that lip-syncing is just as popular there as it’s in South Asia, so they saw no big deal there, and did what they needed to do to make the perfect show. Lip-syncing occurs in many places beside South Asia, I obviously know about that, but in most cases the credit is given to the artist in due time. Yes, people present at the Bird’s Nest Stadium during the ceremony felt as if they were being cheated when they were expecting something original whereas they were rather given something hidden, and from backstage, it’s only natural. What’s happened with Yang Peiyi is definitely regrettable, and even a small mention of her name would have sufficed. I’m not saying China is not at fault here—because they obviously are—and neither did I say USA was bad.



Straying from topic...

Technically, it’s compulsory that all Bollywood actresses must be good dancer to begin with as practically ALL films have song in them where they must shake their thang. Dancing is a talent that’s required in the field and it’s not a big deal if you don’t know how to sing or not, since there are all the playback singers and all that jazz. However, there are actually a number of actors and actresses [mostly actresses] who do know how to sing. Aside from Urmila, there’s Priyanka Chopra who’s got an AH-MAZING voice. These talents are mostly revealed during the award ceremonies and every time we learn something new about these actors and actresses. Now the film industry, or actually, the music industry won’t let the actors and actresses sing, because if that were to happen, the playback singers lose their job.