Faking Their Way to a Perfect Olympics

Olympics Ceremony Featured Fake Fireworks, Fake Singer, All in the Name of National Interest

When Lin Miaoke, right, opened her mouth to sing "Ode to the Motherland" during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the voice that was actually heard was a recording of seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, left.

BEIJING — Pigtailed and smiling, Lin Miaoke, age 9, stood in a red dress and white shoes during Friday’s Olympic opening ceremonies and performed “Ode to the Motherland” in what would become one of the evening’s most indelible images: a lone child, fireworks blazing overhead, singing a patriotic ballad before an estimated one billion viewers.

Except that her proud father, Lin Hui, noticed “that the voice was a little different from hers.” On Tuesday, Mr. Lin said in a telephone interview that he had assumed “the difference might be caused by the acoustics.”

Acoustics had nothing to do with it. Under pressure from the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party to find the perfect face and voice, the ceremonies’ production team concluded that the best solution was to use two girls instead of one.

Miaoke, a third grader, was judged cute and appealing but “not suitable” as a singer. Another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7, was judged the best singer but not as cute.

So when Miaoke opened her mouth to sing, the voice that was actually heard was a recording of Peiyi.

And it is unclear if Miaoke even knew.

“The reason was for the national interest,” explained Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies, who revealed the deception Sunday during a radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression.”

The Chinese government has taken great pains to present the best possible image to the outside world during the Olympics, and perfection was the goal for the dazzling opening ceremonies. The filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who oversaw the production, has earned international praise for staging a performance that many considered one of the most spectacular in Olympic history.

But to achieve the spectacular, 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.”

Using recorded music during large outdoor performances is hardly unprecedented.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, for example, the famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti, then 70, lip-synched an aria because of his age and the cold weather. But the recording was still his voice.

After last Friday’s performance, Mr. Zhang appeared at a news conference with Chinese reporters and praised Miaoke.

“She’s very cute and sings quite well, too,” he said. Asked to name which section of the show he found most satisfying, he first mentioned Miaoke.

“I was moved every time we did a rehearsal on this, from the bottom of my heart,” he said, according to a transcript of the news conference.

Miaoke’s song was considered critical because it coincided with the arrival of the Chinese flag in the massive National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest.

In his radio interview, Mr. Chen said a member of the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo, whom he did not identify, attended one of the last rehearsals, along with many other officials, and demanded that Miaoke’s voice “must change.”

By Tuesday, the Chinese news media had already pounced on the story, instigating a national conversation that government censors were trying to mute by stripping away many, but not all, of the public comments posted online.

Many remaining comments expressed outrage over the cold calculation used to appraise the girls.

“Please save the last bit of trueness in our children,” wrote one person, who used the online name Weirderhua. “They think Yang Peiyi’s smile is not cute enough? What we need is truth, not some fake loveliness! I hope the kids will not be hurt. This is not their fault.”

Another person added: “Children are innocent. Don’t contaminate their minds!”

Mr. Lin said his daughter had been under strict orders not to discuss plans for the performance. Indeed, he got only 15 minutes’ notice that she would be the singer, and he was thrilled as he watched on television. He learned only later of the voice switch, when he saw a video clip of the interview with the music director, Mr. Chen.

In that interview, on a program called “Beijing Music Radio,” Mr. Chen depicted a difficult process of selecting a child singer.

He said about 10 children had been chosen who “had a good image and who can sing well.”

Initially, a 10-year-old girl was selected “whose voice was really good.” This girl held the role for most of the rehearsals — until Mr. Zhang decided she was too old.

Then, Mr. Chen said, several younger girls, including Miaoke and Peiyi, were taken to the Central People’s Radio Station in Beijing.

“After the recording, we thought that Lin Miaoke’s voice was not very suitable,” Mr. Chen said. “Finally, we made the decision that the voice we would use was Yang Peiyi’s.”

But not the face: photos of Peiyi posted online show a happy girl with imperfect teeth, hardly an uncommon problem in China.

“Everyone should understand this in this way,” Mr. Chen said. “This is in the national interest. It is the image of our national music, national culture, especially during the entrance of our national flag. This is an extremely important, extremely serious matter.”

He added, “I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi.”

On Monday, Peiyi appeared on China Central Television, or CCTV, the state network. “I’m O.K. with it,” she told her interviewer, even performing a song. “My voice was used in the performance. I think that’s enough.”

Miaoke’s father, a news photographer at a Chinese newspaper, was worried about how she would take the news. Since age 6, Miaoke has worked in television advertisements, even appearing with the country’s wildly popular hurdling champion, Liu Xiang. Her appearance in the opening ceremonies made her an instant celebrity in China, and her image was reproduced around the world.

“Here’s something I want to tell you,” Mr. Lin said he had told his daughter. “The music director announced just now that it was not your voice when you were singing at the opening ceremony. The song was actually performed by you two girls.”

Mr. Lin said his daughter was not upset. He said that Miaoke and Peiyi were “good friends” and that Miaoke “doesn’t care who sang the song, as long as she performed.”

Then he added: “I don’t care about this either. The only thing I care about is that my daughter will not get hurt by this. She’ll understand when she grows up.”