BEIJING — The pig-tailed girl in a red dress who sang “Ode to the Motherland” during Friday’s opening ceremony for the Olympics was fit for the event, but apparently her voice was not.
A Chinese government official acknowledged Tuesday that the girl was actually lip-synching at Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” Stadium; the real singer’s face was deemed “not suitable.” In an interview with Beijing Radio, Chen Qigang, a member of China’s Politburo, said that organizers concluded during a rehearsal that the voice of 9-year-old Lin Miaoke, who appeared before a television audience of tens of millions, “must change.” Yang Peiyi, the 7-year-old girl whose voice was judged superior, would actually sing the song.
“We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance,” Chen said. He added, “The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest.”
Another sleight of hand involved the fireworks display that exploded the length of Beijing at the end of the ceremony. The display was real, involving 29 pyrotechnic “footprints” exploded sequentially from Tiananmen Square to the Olympic Village.
But the 55-second version that most TV viewers saw was an animated three-dimensional studio re-creation, said Gao Xiaolong, visual-effects team leader at the Crystal Stone animation company.
