U-G-L-Y! You Ain't Got No Alibi! YOU UGLY!
 

BEIJING - A 7-year-old Chinese girl was not good-looking enough for the Olympics opening ceremony, so another little girl with a pixie smile lip-synched "Ode to the Motherland," a ceremony official said — the latest example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Summer Games.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080812/...p_synched_song


Awwww :( That's messed up. I saw a photo of the real singer on TV. She looks a little special and the substitute is prettier. But that's just wrong.

The audacity is kinda funny. :o

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph...60_789580c.jpg

For the sake of comparision.

And now, just for the LGLO people:

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/2...ong_xin101.jpg

The left arm is saying Lambda Pi Chi, but the right is saying Chi Upsilon Sigma.

Oh and I don't really think the original singer is ugly. But apparently the Beijing officials do.

Bootlegging that chit... Lip syncing Milli Vanilli style... That's sad. How did folks find out the "attractive girl" couldn't sing?

Aw, poor baby, she's 7! I think she's perfectly adorable for a 7-year-old. Talk about setting those girls on roads toward lowered and bloated self-esteem early...

I don't see how red dress girl is cuter than singing girl?

LOL!

I'm guessing they thought she was prettier because of the long hair and the straighter teeth.

Well dang...if that's the problem, throw some extensions and veneers on the child! I'd probably get it more if I understood the culture better.

It's that "intra-ethnic" issue. The standard of beauty differs for every group on the planet. Personally, I think it's wrong and stupid, but apparently, I am in the minority opinion here. If the 7year old can sing a patriotic song well and dance to it, she should have been on camera. The other girl is just as cute, but could not sing the song. I guess the Chinese know they have 2 billion odd folks they can maneuver and manipulate, so to them, they can get ANYONE to do ANYTHING...

I remember when I was still living in the dorms, my roommate was Chinese (from the Hunan province, if i remember correctly) and she looked A LOT like the girl on the right.

According to her, the way she looked wasn't considered beautiful by Chinese standards. I remember her saying that even her mom wouldn't say that she was beautiful. Being "beautiful" was looking more American----thinner face, rounder eyes, etc.

I'm sorry but red dress girl looks bratty to the extreme. I think the real singer is much cuter.

At least w/ Milli Vanilli, Rob and Fab really were hella hotter than the "real" singers.

:(

Wow... That is truly the saddest thing I have ever heard. Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder... Wow... Isn't that a form of abuse?

Girl you know it's true. Ooo, ooo, oooooo

FWIW - I think that both girls are cute but the one who could sing should have been able to sing.

Well, the old Chinese school of thought is that parents shouldn't praise their kids too much or the kids will get a swelled head...so they will temper their praise with criticism..like Chinese moms will be like "Oh, you got an A. That's good, but you could've gotten an A+ if you studied harder."

LOL...I still think the substitute is cuter and prettier.

But I see that as a different topic. The real topic is that it is jacked up that they did that and their explanation for it is jacked up.

Yeah, the substitute is just a much cuter kid, it's not particularly close. It's weird and awkward they did this, but if the goal was improving kid cuteness, that mission was accomplished.

I'm sorry, but this is FREAKING HILARIOUS and totally sad at the same time.

I bet the substitute 7-year old is a total brat.

I was thinking the same thing. The girl in the red dress does look more "Western." It's really sad that minority cultures worldwide are still dealing with this issue...that's a whole new discussion:(

ETA: I think the actual singer is really cute BTW. I am glad she is proud of her accomplishment even though she was not the featured "star"

Most definitely! I'd like to send her fan mail.

wow that's really sad. poor kid :(

i think the actual singer is cuter.

Is this substitution any more messed up that what the opening ceremonies have become generally?

I also heard on MSNBC that the Chinese have admitted that the opening ceremonies were "digitally enhanced". China obviously saw a great need for "perfection" during this years olympics.

The Chinese used fake fireworks too:

Footage of the fake fireworks

If you really think about it, MOST countries and ethnic groups always try to e[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']mulate white European or American standards of beauty. When I was in college, we saw a video of Asian women who were getting plastic surgery on their eyes to look less Asian and more white/european. Us black women have been doing it for years, we straighten our hair, and think that lighter is better, so even though its TOTALLY WRONG (esp since it's kids) I can understand why they might have done it, the WHOLE world was watching, so they wanted to put up some one who they probably would appeal to the majority "standard of beauty"[/FONT]

1) I think that's messed up, that little girl is amazingly impressive. If they wanted eyes to be off of her, they should have 'digitally enhanced' more of what was going on around her so everyone would be so mezmerized they didn't even care to look at the little girl... who IS cute btw

2) While I was at work, we were watching the opening and one of the hosts came back, looked at us and said with the most straight face "The whole opening would be so much more awesome if they weren't dirty communist bastards." Gave a big smile and walked away. We immeidiately started laughing hysterically.

poor girl is going to have some serious self-esteem issues.

We are talking about the Chinese, who refused to submit the birth certificates for their women's gymnastics team - they would only submit the government issued passports. Word is that they range in age from 10 - 14, and the youngest age able to compete is supposed to be 16.
Can we get cute singing girl to come here?

Yeah man those girls look like they're 10.. Only one of them looked older than 16.

Those damned Communists...

1. I am waiting for someone to "Well, they all look alike."

2. Well if that isn't enough, what about them CGI'ing the fireworks?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4652802a12.html

I think someone pasted the link aready...eh...it's worth mentioning again....

Also someone said that China had a B ball team...All I saw Sunday was Yao Ming and 4 other dudes that was getting in good shape.


If they were so concerned they should have gotten this guy to sing:

http://www.thebestlinks.com/images/0/07/WilliamHung.JPG

The difference between th Chinese gymnasts and the American gymnasts maturity was quite disturbing. The Chinese made our own 5 ft. gymnasts look like giants! One of the Chinese gymnasts is missing a tooth and weighs a measly 69 lbs!! That gold medal should be revoked. But kudos to the American team for being so gracious in the face of deception.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/sp...tml?ref=sports

And if that wasnt enough...the Spansh Basketball team is in trouble too

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/bei...urn=oly,100152

If those girls ever legally claim a younger age in the future, can the medals be taken away? I mean they do it to people who admit drug use at the time so I'm assuming that rules are rules are rules...(unless you are China).

the IOC will have to make that determination then and even still they would come under scrutiny because they didn't bother to properly check the first time around. (if the allegations do turn out to be true)

Those girls are clearly babies! My goodness, just compare them to our women's team. Its soo obvious, I'm surprised there isn't more outrage about this. To play devil's advocate: if the girls are "babies" they are definitely very talented...beating out women with 4 to 6 years more training.

Is it true that the Chinese simply choose there gymnast in pre-school at the age of 3? I heard from that age, they are given elite training until they qualify for the olympics!

Your last paragraph touched on why being younger doesn't mean that you have fewer years (or a less rigorous) training.

Plus, isn't gymnastics also easier when people are younger because their bones are more flexible and they weight less. Or something? :confused:

You "heard this" because it is verbatim taken from what the color commentary stated toward the end of the team competition. Like, exactly, word-for-word.

I'd guess it's more true than not - NBC has mostly had on the kid gloves in their presentation, save for Bela Karolyi flipping his lid.

No Olympics are complete without Bela Karolyi flipping his lid at least twice.