Bababa ba?

China banned child singer with crooked teeth from singing at opening ceremony
Times Online
by Jane Macartney and Ashling O’Connor

She warmed more than a billion hearts with her sweet and pure rendition of one of China’s favourite revolutionary anthems at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

As Lin Miaoke sang sweetly through Ode to the Motherland in the Bird’s Nest stadium on Friday night, an emerging superpower swelled with pride at their beautiful little songbird in her red dress and cute pigtails.

But as she was fêted across China yesterday for a charming performance that made her a star, the Beijing schoolgirl was exposed as a fake.

Far from being angel-voiced, it seems Miaoke was simply angel-faced, as it emerged that she did not sing a note.

The real singer was Yang Peiyi, a seven-year-old deemed not pretty enough to be the face of China’s most watched moment in history.

…

“The reason why little Peiyi was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image. The reason was for the national interest,” said Chen Qigang, the renowned contemporary composer and French citizen who directed the music for the opening ceremony.

(Read more here)

Sa akin lang ha, pero ang sarap tuloy i-boycott ng Beijing Olympics. Mas inaalaala pa nila ang kanilang public image kaysa sa mararamdaman ng isang bata. Ano kaya nararamdaman ng bata ngayon na hindi siya mismo yung pinakanta dahil ayon sa kanilang gobyerno ay hindi siya ganoon kaganda? Ang sakit naman siguro nun para sa bata. Batang-bata pa lang ginagamit na.

So anong “right image” iyang pinagmamalaki niyo? Child exploitation? Na mas importante ang image ninyo kaysa sa nararamdaman ng isa sa inyo? Ano sasabihin ng nanay ng bata sa kanya nyan?

“Anak, sabi ng gobyerno hindi ka raw maganda. Pero gusto pa rin sana nila hiramin ang boses mo para sa Olympic opening ha? Yun lang daw kasi ang maganda sa iyo. Ikaw kakanta, pero hindi ikaw yung ipapakita. Ok lang ha?”

Potek. Kung ako sa kanya e hindi na lang ako kumanta. Pero siyempre, bilang dinikta ng gobyerno, kailangang gawin.

Hindi naman panget yung bata eh. So ano ngayon kung baku-bako ang ngipin? Ako tabingi ngipin ko, so hindi ako maganda? Tsk tsk tsk. Kung tingnan niyo naman yung litrato nung bata, cute naman siya.

Hay naku. Anong klaseng Olympics iyan. Papanuorin mo pa ba pag malaman mo na pati yung mga manunuod sa gilid ay fake? Tapos yung fireworks ay fake? Naku baka mamaya yung Bird’s Nest fake na rin pala!