Another media fabrication: this time, the crooked teeth fiasco

The famous ESWN blog has done some excellent research into how the media have been creating -- literally -- the "uneven/crooked teeth girl" hype.

ESWN checked over many primary sources and found no mention of the girl who sang "Ode to the Motherland" was replaced by Lin Miaoke because of her "uneven/crooked teeth/chubby face". The term was completely fabricated by the western media when they reported on the story. Then, the "crooked teetch/chubby face" argument quickly becomes the "official" reason the world believes was behind Yang failing to perform.

I have to admit that before I opined in an earlier post that I was ashamed by the lipsynching thing, I didn't check out the original interview of musical director Chen Qigang. I "naturally" believed in what the media were telling me that Yang was sacrificed because of her less-than-perfect look. My apology for having made strong opinions without double checking out the fact.

Anyway, hats off to ESWN for exposing -- again -- the ugliness of the western media.



Please read the full investigation on ESWN blog. Here's just a small part of the blogger's good work.

(transcript in Chinese via China News Digest)

(translated into English by DJ at Fool's Mountain)

Chen Qigang: The director requested first and foremost adorable kids, and we identified about 10 children accordingly. We then listened to the singing of those kids, and not all of them had good enough voice to perform. The request from the director was that, first the appearance must be good, and of those, the one with the best voice and ability to sing should be picked. We went through a few such candidates through the process and they helped our music creation effort tremendously.

The first kid was about 10 years old. She contributed the most towards the preparation stage of this part of the performance. All the early practice runs were based on her recorded singing. But the director felt she was not the best visual for the scene. She was considered somewhat older than envisioned, a bit adolescent that is. So regrettably she was dropped. We then focused on searching through younger kids. The age criteria was to find someone about 7 years old. A number of them were selected, including both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi.

We went to the Central Broadcasting Radio Station to make recordings. It was felt afterward that Lin Miaoke’s voice wasn’t exactly suitable in terms of tone control, range and depth. In the end, we decided that Yang Peiyi should be the one to provide the voice. We thought it was in the national interest to put the one with the best appearance and expression on the stage. Lin Miaoke was a very good choice for this role. But in terms of the music, we all felt that Yang Peiyi had the flawless voice.

Interviewer: So the one appearing in front the camera was Lin Miaoke and the song came from Yang Peiyi?

Chen Qigang: That’s right. It was a last minute, tough decision. We went through multiple practices and reviews. We played Lin Miaoke’s recording during one joint practice. Many reviewers, particularly someone in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee [of the CCP], made comments that it must be changed. We had no choice.

Interviewer: This is the first time for us to hear this story.

Chen Qigang: We have a responsibility to explain this to the Chinese viewers. I think the viewers should be able to understand that, in the national interest, for the perception of the country, it was an extremely important and serious matter to present the flag [in the best possible manner]. We made a decision, which I think was fair to both Lin and Yang. We felt the coupling of a perfect voice with the best appearance produced the most optimal result. From Lin Miaoke’s point of view, she might not even have realized it. We had two recordings from both of them and they didn’t sound very different.

ESWN discovers that, when the English media went on the reporting, this is the results:

(Los Angeles Times) China's $100-million Olympics opening ceremony wowed its global TV audience with a lavish spectacle and pizazz that tried to present a perfect image of China to the world, right down to the perfect teeth of the little girl who took center-stage and sang an ode to the motherland. Except the voice was not hers. It was recorded and belonged to another girl, with better pipes but crooked baby teeth and a chubby face.

(AFP) The show's musical director revealed the real singer, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi who has uneven teeth and a chubby face, was replaced by government order because she did not present the right image of China. ... No newspaper reported on the issue on Wednesday and state broadcasters also avoided the subject. References to the story were blocked or deleted from the Internet.

(AFP) Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday. Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday. But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

(Times Online) The real singer was Yang Peiyi, a seven-year-old deemed not pretty enough to be the face of China’s most watched moment in history. Chubby-cheeked with crooked teeth, she was substituted at the eleventh hour by Communist Party officials desperate to present the best possible image of Chinese youth to a curious world. After watching a rehearsal with Peiyi in the lead role, a senior member of the Politburo told Beijing Olympic organisers that they had an urgent problem that needed fixing. The solution was to front Peiyi’s “perfect” voice with the more acceptable face of Miaoke, who had already appeared in a television advert.

(Telegraph) Now we discover that Lin Miaoke, the little pig-tailed girl in the red dress who "performed" the Chinese anthem so delightfully at the opening ceremony, was miming. The real singer, Yang Peiyi, was dropped at the last minute because of her buck teeth. In a revealing interview, the ceremony's musical designer said the intervention of a member of the ruling politburo was instrumental in making the swap.

(Globe and Mail) The unmasking of the ruse by which China attempted to pass off one girl's beautiful face as belonging to another girl's beautiful voice is also the unmasking of the new China, and the propaganda purposes of the Beijing Olympics. It would not have done to have Lang Peiyi, the seven-year-old singer of China's patriotic song, Ode to the Motherland, be seen by the world or her own country during the opening ceremony of the Games: She has uneven teeth. Those teeth, and her bowl-cut hair, do not suggest wealth or modernity. Her replacement, nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, is a pig-tailed, Asian version of one of the Olsen twins at that age. She is the ideal, the new China.

(National Post) The pinnacle of deceit, however, came when Chen Qigang, the music director of the Opening Ceremony, admitted in an interview with state media that the adorable nine-year-old girl who sang Ode to the Motherland as China's flag was carried into the main stadium was not, in fact, singing. Lin Miaoke was chosen because the girl whose voice was used, Yang Peiyi, had too-crooked teeth and a too-chubby face. As Chen reportedly put it, "we were concerned with the interests of the nation."