When it comes to portraying an image, no country is more paranoid than China and if you watched the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony, you will have gotten a sense of how far China will take it.
Remember how the performers were all of the same height? What about the cheerleading girls welcoming the country parade? It's hard not to notice that they all look the same - same height, same body dimension and even their camera-friendly faces looked the same. And who can forget the incredible 9 year old who sang before the raising of the flag? An amazingly adorable girl with eyes that seem to sparkle on camera. How far did they go to find this girl among their billion people? Apparently, they found two: one for the voice, the other for the face. The voice was actually that of a 7 year-old (girl on left) but she didn't have the right face so instead the 9 year old (girl on right) took the stand lip syncing to the other's voice.
Isn't that just horrible? Devastating for a child's confidence by anyone's standard! When questioned, the general music designer for the Olympics explained:
"The reason was for national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression."
Wow, talk about cold. So what else was doctored?
"...not only did organizers fake the song, but they also have acknowledged that one early sequence of the stunning fireworks shown to television viewers actually included digitally enhanced computer graphics used for 'theatrical effect'"
Indeed, only in China. Read the full article here.
P.S. It was still the most amazing Olympic Ceremony I've seen and will be hard to top.