Look behind curtain of China’s ‘perfect’ Olympics
Filed Under Country Curtain, Cur Tainx | Posted on August 17, 2008
Except maybe a poor camera view of the spectacular fireworks. The Chinese were more than a little concerned that smog might cloud the fireworks display depicting giant footprints walking across the sky. Problem solved: The scene for television viewers around the world and on Olympic stadium screens was a computer-generated image of fireworks, not the real deal. A team of 150 Chinese visual effects specialists spent a year working on the computer-generated display. They even added a slight camera shake to make it seem like the scene was being photographed from a helicopter aloft. They tossed in some haziness, just to add nodding acknowledgment of Beijing’s pollution, all to sell the deception.
Perhaps most troubling of all is that Olympic organizers fully acknowledge their “casting decision” in allowing a perky 9-year-old girl to lip-synch a song during Opening Ceremonies. The lovely voice actually belonged to a 7-year-old whom officials deemed not pretty enough for prime time. How disappointing.
As Americans, we know what it is like to live in a society obsessed with looks. Just check out the women in broadcast news. They run the gamut from hot to merely great-looking. An unattractive TV broadcaster is a rarity, no matter what her journalistic skills. But, we aren’t letting blow-dried babes lip-synch the news. What a terrible message to send to young viewers around the world.
American kids following the gymnastics competition were already a little spooked by the Chinese when they heard about how gymnasts are selected and taken from their families for year-round training as young as 3 years old. The obsession to win appears to extend even to lying about gymnasts’ ages.
Stories from the Chinese government’s own news agency reported gymnast He Kexin was 13 just nine months before the Beijing games. That would make her at least two years too young to participate. Speculation about the ages of other Chinese gymnasts is widespread.
Any Olympic host wants to show its best self to the world and pull out all the stops to make a good impression. But China has gone too far.
Editorials reflect the consensus of the Telegraph Herald Editorial Board: Jim Normandin (publisher), Brian Cooper, Ken Brown, Steve Fisher, Monty Gilles and Amy Gilligan.
No tag for this post.Related posts
Leave a Reply