Well, That will be very disappointing if it's true..

There is a difference between Milli Vanilli and this incidence. Milli Vanilli was found out by the press while on this case it was acknowledge by the Chinese Olympic organizer (so much for lack of transparency).
It is just a show and this little girl singing is just a small portion of the entire ceremony. Enjoy the show rather than finding defect to point and laugh at!
Need a microscope to find defect isn't that right Mr. Fredy Balfour?

What does this has anything to do with business? BS Week is the new name of this trashy magazine.

I don't totally agree with what happened. The best solution is that they should seek a girl with both beauty and good sound. China is so populous, it could not be difficult. The organizers of the ceremony just did their job for convenience not perfection. This is now a hot topic on Chinese websites inside and outside of China. Actually Peiyi is not ugly, she is just ordinary but she is shy. Her pictures can now be found on Chinese forums doemstic or overseas.

I saw the pictures of the menu for Olympic ceremoney, both kids' name were listed clearly. Peiyi's name was even put before Miaoke's. That's not a secret at all. Of course the ceremony was so good, media become more picky. This is also a good chance to smear the games since it is in China.

The arrangement got agreement from both families and also the media who bought the broadcasting rights as stated.

It is ZHANG YIMOU not ZHIMOU.

My gosh... do you not even know who the most famous director in China is yet you say you cover China since 1985!!!

No wonder your articles are junk.

And sorry, a Malaysian-Chinese is not a mainland Chinese! Lumping her together and her ideas with how mianlanders think is ridiculous.

Dear Come On.
Thank you for pointing out my typo, I have made a correction to the story.

Come on. It is show business.
Brits are so afraid of that they are not going to top off this in their wild dreams.

By the way Business Week, please have some decent news and stories!

It's just a ceremony, chinese people made lots of efforts on it. It is a beautiful show, you could enjoy it and would be thankful if you have the heart of fairness.

If Mr. Zhang believes in the importance of beautiful face, he should have allowed Lin Miaoke to sing in her voice. If a beautiful voice is more important then Yang Peiyi should be presented and sing. Because, come on, “Ode to the Motherland” is an expression of love and pride to the nation, and no bad voice/looks can belittle that. Judging by the many comments that critique but seems to skirt the main gist of the essay, I can only guess the supporters of this lip-synching act are still looking for a proper line of argument. We can wait...
As for the views of Sabrina Chan, I suspect many Chinese nationals themselves would agree to it too. But don't take my word for it, I don't presume to have the same thinking as the chinese themselves for I am only a humble singaporean-chinese...

Have to admit when I first heard about the lip synching, I felt a bit sick, but then all the ink generated since then has worned us all out. So what. Seriously. Especially if both names of the real singer and the face is there on the programe. This little girl, if we are splitting hairs was not as memorable (although I love her little red dress!) as the little girl who sang (for real)... at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Now can we just focus on the amazing dedication and skills of all these fine athletes that have gathered in China to represent their country and themselves?

I think both girls were cute in their own way's and China indeed admitted the lip sync.

However I do not understand how a person's perceived beauty of small kids is related to national interest? Will some Chinese friends elaborate please?

They fake it as well and they only came clean 8 years later. China kindly inform everyone of this issue up front and what happened? China got punished next time China should learn that does not pay to be nice to the Western news such as BusinessWeek!
Orchestra admits 'miming' at Sydney Olympics in 2000
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080828/ennew_afp/oly2008australiaorchestrafake

Thu Aug 28, 11:44 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Eight years after it hosted an Olympics that were famously hailed as the "best games ever," Sydney has had to confess that it faked one of the key musical performances at the opening ceremony in 2000.
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The revelation came after it emerged that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke was just lip-synching when she "sang" a patriotic song before 91,000 people and a global television audience during the August 8 opening ceremony at the Beijing Games.

Orchestra bosses have admitted that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) mimed its entire performance at the ceremony, and that some of the real music was in fact recorded by rival musicians in Melbourne.

"It was all pre-recorded and the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) did record a minority of the music that was performed," SSO managing director Libby Christie told Australia's Fairfax newspapers earlier this week.

It looks like the Chinese weren't the first to fake part of their musical performance at the Olympic Games. An alert reader has pointed out to me an AFP story which says the Australians faked the entire symphony performance at the opening games in Sydney in 2000. That reader also asked me if I was going to apologize for taking China to task over the Lin Miaoke incident. Sorry, I don't feel an apology would be appropriate. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Good job! Correction done!!

The NBC commentator specifically said, as the footage was being shown, that the event's producers were using a cinematic interlude to convey the concept of the fireworks. The actual footprint firewoks WERE going off at the same time, and in much the same way... tourists and people in Beijing saw the footprint fireworks fired above sky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbZrI8onelg

but there was simply no way to be sure they could show it well on TV - since it was hard to capture all those 29 footprint fireworks on a helicopter, and it was hard to predict the weather or other cirumstances, and following those footprint fireworks could endanger the safety of the helicopter pilot. So, they showed a 55-second CGI illustration for the people watching TV. They weren't hiding anything, they came right out and SAID what they were doing. The whole thing was REAL, there were indeed 29 footprint fireworks fired in the city above the sky at the beginning of the opening ceremony, only what you saw on TV was simulated.

Besides, China informed the commentators from around the globe beforehand that the footprint fireworks on TV is just a rendition, many countries' commentators during the live broadcast did comment to family audience that the footprint firework on TV is just a CGI rendition to convey what's happening in Beijing. Since China came upfront with this, why the western media still condemned China afterwards, it seems the western media have to exploit every opportunity to besmirch China.

As for the lip-synched girl, this is not the first time it happend in the Olympics and you are all silly to believe this. Salt Lake City Winter Olympics is a prime example. As the furry white creatures sang during the opening ceremony, it was actually pre recorded by SLC's, Cathedral of the Madeleine's choir school.

And others like pre-recorded Lang Lang music, presenting China's 56 ethnic groups without those ethnic groups. These are no big deal.

Politics aside, Beijing's opening ceremony is the most stunning and imposing show on the planet. Can London 2012 beat it or as good as it? Sorry, I don't think so.