Sorry little girl, you are too ugly for the Olympic opening ceremony

In the quest for perfection during the Olympics opening ceremony, another boo-boo has been revealed.

It seems that pig-tailed seven-year old Lin Miaoke who "sang" "Ode to the Motherland" during the Olympics opening ceremony was actually lip-syncing! That's no suprise to anyone who watched the ceremony ... but this part of the story might be: Lin Miaoke wasn't even lip-syncing her own song. This is because the original angel voice belonged to Yang Peiyi, of the same age, whose face was deemed "not suitable" to appear during the ceremony. Pictures later show a smiling girl with bangs and crooked teeth.

Lin Maioke was already a mini-celebrity as she had appeared in a television ad last year with hurdling champion Liu Xiang and on her personal blog, posted a picture with Opening ceremony director Zhang Yimou.

According to AFP:

A member of China's Politburo asked for the last-minute change to match one girl's face with another's voice, the ceremony's chief music director, Chen Qigang, said in an interview with Beijing Radio.

"The audience will understand that it's in the national interest," … "We had to make that choice. It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi," Chen told Beijing Radio. "We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance."

The blogosphere is raging with comments. From various reports:

One blog posting said, "Fake singing is bad, to make a lip synch is worse." Another said, "Leave the last bit of innocence to the children."

"The organizers really messed up on this one," said Luo Shaoyang, 34, a retail worker in Beijing.

"This is like a voice-over for a cartoon character," Luo said. "Why couldn't they pick a kid who is both cute and a good singer? This damages the reputation of both kids for their future, especially the one lip-synching. Now everyone knows she's a fraud. Who cares if she's cute?"

Zhang Xinyi, 22, who works in marketing in Beijing, disagreed. "I can understand why they picked the prettier girl. They need to maintain a certain aesthetic beauty during the opening ceremonies. This situation is not so bad, especially since it gives two people an opportunity to shine rather than just one."

This is the second straight Olympics where the opening ceremony involved lip-syncing. Luciano Pavarotti's performance at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin was prerecorded due to the Pavarotti's complaints of severe pain, months before his cancer diagnosis.