Justice for Yang Peiyi !

[LuckyTheDog]

My wife had a GREAT idea: Whoever wins the presidential election in the fall (and I KNOW it'll be Obama) should invite Yang Peiyi to the U.S. to perform at the inauguration.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2545387/Beijing-Olympics-Faking-scandal-over-girl-who-sang-in-opening-ceremony.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Cool idea!

:thumbsup:

[fed_up_mother]

2. Yeah, but I'm tired of the in-your-face policies of the Bush cabal

I don't think we need any more of that.

Ugh

[tburnsten]

3. I agree

Though I do think it is despicable that they replaced their singer with someone else "for national interests". I hope the little girl leaves China soon, what a terrible way to live.

[Sanctified]

4. I would invite both girls and have them sing a duet.

Both girls were slighted by the Chinese government, one was told you are not pretty enough and the other was told your voice is not good enough.

[tburnsten]

5. Are you seriously comparing the two?

That doesn't even make any sense, if people, even children, are trying out to represent their nation in song then not winning is not a slight, it just means she was out-sung by another girl.

But coming out as the top contender for the position and then being told that someone else will be lipsynching your song because some official from "the party" doesn't like your teeth is a travesty.


More whitewashing of Beijing and China in general. I can't understand why they won the bid, aside from their willingness to build or do anything to get the games.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. "a travesty."

Uh, tburnsten. Every time you turn on your TV, your looking at somebody who won an audtion, instead of any number of people who lost the audition because their teetch were too crooked, or they were an inch to short, or their eyes were too close together, or they were too ethnic.

That's show business.

[tburnsten]

9. Right

But rarely does the loser sing the actual song while another loser who looks better pretends to sing it.

Travesty was a little dramatic, but I still don't like the Chinese government at all.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. Right, you don't like the Chinese government.

And you're coming up with all sorts of silly reasons not to, when there should be plenty of valid reasons.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. I see no reason to ugly up my television.

I support the Chinese decision.

:thumbsup:

[Bluebear]

7. Just when I think you can't top yourself.

[tkmorris]

10. He's yanked more chains than a professional dog walker

It's what he does. Don't read too much into it.

[JBoy]

11. There's pressure now to have Yang Peiyi perform at the closing ceremonies

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/13/asia/AS-OLY-China-Lip-Synched-Song.php

"The parents of both girls said separately Wednesday they did not want their daughters to speak to the media, and said each felt privileged just to have taken part.

But many Chinese said Peiyi deserves the spotlight, and some suggested organizers find a place for her in the games closing ceremony Aug. 24.

"This is pretty unfair for the girl who was not picked to perform live," said Cui Fengsi, a Beijing driver-for-hire in comments typical of several people who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday, and of numerous blog posts. "This girl has a great voice and they should recognize that she deserves to be seen. She should definitely perform at the closing ceremonies.""

[JBoy]

12. They should get George Bush to fly on a wire, lip syncing to Dick Cheney.

Sort of a tribute to the last 8 years.

[Bluebear]

13. Perfect.

[PermanentRevolution]

14. What did people expect?

Because, honestly, I just don't see what the big deal is.

I suspect that comes from years of work in the entertainment industry. You become very accustomed to the idea that you're working not to provide an audience with any kind of genuine reality but to trick the audience into believing that you are. When you step onto a movie set, it's incredible, the level of detail that goes into the on-screen set. But a foot away from that is a mass of lights, cameras, power cables, and a few dozen crew members, all of whom are there to trick the audience into believing that what's on screen is genuine.

I've worked with actors who can't stand each other - literally going from fist-fights offstage in the wings to hugs and buddy-buddy camaraderie as soon as they step on, right back into the fight as soon as they exit. I've worked with people who can't stand the sight of each other doing love scenes together and acting like they're enjoying every second. I've spent 3 weeks helping a crew of probably 30 people to carefully convert a suburb in Ft. Lauderdale into Los Angeles in the 1950's, all for less than a minute's screen time. It's all bullshit - carefully calculated bullshit designed specifically to trick your senses and tweak your emotions.

So the Olympic Opening Ceremony is one of the biggest televised events in the world. Of course it's going to be fake. It's going to be staged and planned and rehearsed over and over in order to be as close to the "perfect" event as humanly possible. So this poor little girl got told she wasn't cute enough to be on TV. Unfortunate for her, yes, but it's not at all unique or outrageous. As they say, "that's show biz." It's the way the industry works, and despite whatever Olympic ideals are supposed to be represented by the Games themselves, the reality is that the opening ceremony has absolutely nothing to do with that. It's entertainment, designed to impress and delight on a global scale and TRICK people into thinking that it's about peace and harmony and the human spirit and all that. And in order to do that, every aspect of it has to be rigidly controlled and choreographed.

It's just how it is, and it would be no different with any other host country. Right and wrong, just and unjust, are really just pointless distinctions when you're talking about an industry that is based completely, totally, 100% on the deliberate manipulation of people's emotional reactions.