Even The Little Girls In China Are CGI-Enhanced

Many flabbergasted-sounding news stories were released about China's fakery during the peyote-inspired opening ceremonies from Friday in which it appeared for a short period of time that the whole city of Beijing had been outlined with enough pretty explosives to knock down wandering defense satellites. It turns out that the sky-swallowing, hyper-colored fireworks were not the only things given a behind-the-scenes touch-up. No, that equally sparkly version of "Ode to the Motherland" supposedly sung by an 9-year-old girl with the perfectly aligned facial features named Lin Miaoke was actually not sung by her at all, but rather a "not flawless" 7-year-old singer named Yang Peiyi. Olympics musical director Chen Qigang admitted this to a Beijing radio station, saying "The reason for this is that we must put our country's interest first.The girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expression and the great feeling she can give to people." If Yang Peiyi was American she would be destined for a life of painful rhinoplasty, fat camps, and crippling self-esteem issues. But she's not. She's acutely self-aware of her own limitations and completely comfortable with it: "I'm satisfied to have had my voice in the opening ceremony," she told the Chinese press. After speaking with reporters, Yang had the brown bag placed back over her head and was quickly shuffled back to the dingy basement her parents have rented out for her where she can practice singing away from the horrified stares of her Motherland's people. China Olympic opening ceremony star mimed [BBC News]