Fake China?

First, we were told that some of the feeds that we saw on television during the opening ceremenony of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were fake and NOT real, especially the extravaganza firework display.

And now, another explotion! It's an issue of discrimination. The cute little girl in red dress that we saw on TV, singing beautifully on the opening ceremony was merely lipsyncing. She took the centre stage at the expense of a chubby girl, who according to a very senior Chinese politician, is not attractive to be shown to the whole world.

Oh my... aren't we in the 21st century already?

NO to racists, NO to sexists, NO Islamophobics, and NO to any sort of discrimination. Full stop.


p/s: Here is the article on Yahoo on the faked Olympic opening ceremony saga.

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BEIJING (AFP) - China enforced a media blackout on the saga of the faked Olympic opening ceremony song on Wednesday and all references to the story were removed from Chinese Internet sites.

Beijing's Olympic organisers admitted on Tuesday that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, who was seen by millions around the world singing during the ceremony, was actually miming a song that was pre-recorded by another girl.

The show's musical director revealed the real singer, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi who has uneven teeth and a chubby face, was replaced by government order because she did not present the right image of China.

No newspaper reported on the issue on Wednesday and state broadcasters also avoided the subject. References to the story were blocked or deleted from the Internet.

Olympic organisers on Wednesday defended the switching of the seven-year-old singer with a more photogenic double, comparing it with an athlete getting dropped for a big game.

Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympic organising committee also said he saw no problem with the secret move.

"I think it is a decision of the group of the directors, together... they are to achieve the most theatrical effect for the benefit of the whole performance, the whole opening ceremony," Wang told reporters.

"I do not see there is anything wrong with it," he said.

China's media is under the control of the central government which also tightly polices the Internet and often deletes or blocks access to items considered unflattering to the country's leaders or hostile to national interests.

The song saga may have embarrassed the nation's top leaders after the musical director Chen Qigang revealed that a member of communist party's ruling politburo was behind the decision to fake the performance.

He said in an interview with a state broadcaster that the actual singer of the song, Yang, was not considered attractive enough to appear on stage, so the cuter Lin was selected instead.

Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress aparently singing the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland" were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen said in the interview that appeared briefly on the news website Sina.com before it was wiped from the Internet.

He said the final decision to stage the event with Lin lip-synching to another girl's voice was taken after the politburo member attended a rehearsal.

"He told us there was a problem that we needed to fix it, so we did," he said, without disclosing further details of the order.

China's ministry of industry and information technology, which is in charge of the Internet in China, declined to comment on the issue on Wednesday.

"We know nothing about this," said a ministry official, declining to give her name.

2008 Beijing Olympics

China has once again, impressed the World with a splendid opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008. Whilst I'm more impressed with the architectural designs of the stadiums, I must admit the opening ceremony last night was one of the bests in the history of Olympic Games. My all time favourite remains the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympic Games 1992.




NOTE: Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images


Malaysia Boleh!
This time around, the Malaysian contigent is led by the flag bearer, Mohd Azizul Hasni Awang, who will be competing in cycling event.

I personally think Malaysian delegates have one of the best attires in the Games. The US delegates is one of my favourites too.




The first Malaysian team to be competing in this Olympics is our archery team. I hope the team, which according to the latest ranking, is ranked 4th after Taiwan, Italy and South Korea, would give their very best and gives the other teams run for their money.

Anyhow, good luck to other Malaysians especially Amirul and Lee Chong Wei. Please do us proud and live up to the Malaysia Boleh spirit.



NOTE: The rest pictures were taken from News Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia. Meanwhile, the picture of Lee Chong Wei was taken from Wikipedia.

Also, Beijing has came out with a couple of songs for the Olympics. Please help yourself with the following clips. It's so good to see China and Taiwan, Iran and the USA, on the same stage to celebrate the best and the fittest of the World. Hopefully, all athletes will uphold tight to the spirit of sportmanship and show to the rest of the World, especially the politicians, the beauty of friendship and brotherhood.


Welcome to Beijing


Forever Friends