The girl who sang "Ode to the Motherland" at the beginning of the opening ceremony is Lin Miaoke, a 9-year-old schoolchild from Beijing. A pretty girl who won national fame "Ode to the Motherland" (Chinese: 歌唱祖国) after singing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was only miming - playback. "The girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expression & the great feeling she can give to people." Singer Lin, who is being called the "smiling angel", has already become a media celebrity because of her performance. An example of the lengths Beijing has taken to project a perfect image for China during the Olympics. A 7-year-old girl, Yang Peiyi, was replaced after officials deemed her face was "not suitable" for the opening ceremony. Instead, an older girl with a perfect smile lip-synced the words to "Ode to the Motherland," which had been recorded by the youngster. Chinese officials have now admitted that the voice that rang out through the vast Bird's Nest stadium was really that of seven-year-old Yang Peiyi instead of Lin Miaoke, who may have had the voice of an angel but whose crooked teeth,that made her unsuitable for the opening ceremony's top spot. |
