The Fate of Tyrlon and other Dubious Things

The Chinese Olympics opening ceremony was from all accounts a stunning example of how billions of dollars can be spent to put on a huge production.  In the days since the ceremony it is becoming more and more apparent that portions of the ceremony were “doctored” to put a better face or look to China.

The most recent example is the most appalling one yet: the little girl who was singing the Chinese song “Ode to the Homeland” wasn’t actually singing it at all - she was lip-synching.  The girl who did sing the song was deemed “too ugly” to be the face of China in the Olympic games so she was replaced just a few days before the ceremony!

Here is a YouTube video of Lin Miaoke “singing” the song, but the real star is the one you don’t get to see: Yang Peiyi who is the one with the beautiful voice.

I think that this kind of stuff is what really shows you how controlling China is and how good a face they want to put on the Olympics.  It does remind me an awful lot of a certain set of games in the 1930s where another country was trying to “put a good face” on themselves to assuage fears of those around them as they engaged in human rights violations.

Here is a picture of both girls for comparison, the one on the right is the one that Chinese officials didn’t think was “pretty enough” since she didn’t have perfectly straight teeth.  What kind of example does this set for young girl’s self-image?  Is it any wonder the world has issues with things like anorexia and bulimia?  When a country the size of China is sternly reinforcing stereotypes of what is “beautiful”, especially when it is a young girl of only 7 who is still growing and doesn’t even have her permanent teeth yet, it is sure to result in the wrong message to children all over.

The other thing that China did was to fake some of the fireworks for the TV broadcast because they were worried it might not show up well on television due to smog or bad weather.  I’m not so down on them doing that as long as it is revealed to people that you are seeing some rendered footage.  If they are faking that, what else are they faking?

Also, the pollution might be slightly better for the duration of the Olympic games, but why is it allowed to be so bad the rest of the time?  I think the answer is the fault of the Western world at large: we like cheap goods.  Part of what makes Chinese goods so cheap is that they don’t have to deal with EPA regulations or labor laws like you have here in the U.S.

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