Speaking of sexism at the Olympics... The little girl who sang the Chinese revolutionary anthem at the opening ceremonies the other night? She was lip-synching. But she was lip-synching to the singing of a totally different little girl:
The real singer was Yang Peiyi, a seven-year-old deemed not pretty enough to be the face of China's most watched moment in history.Chubby-cheeked with crooked teeth, she was substituted at the eleventh hour by Communist Party officials desperate to present the best possible image of Chinese youth to a curious world.
And the Chinese don't see anything wrong with this:
"The reason why little Peiyi was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image. The reason was for the national interest," said Chen Qigang, the renowned contemporary composer and French citizen who directed the music for the opening ceremony."The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings and expression. Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects but in terms of voice Yang Peiyi is perfect."
I mean, Duh: what right-thinking and patriotic nation wouldn't do such a thing? And she's only a girl, after all. Her "internal feelings" must surely be less than perfect, since she's so ugly and, well, female.
Of course, she's actually adorable, little Yang Peiyi, the real singer:
China: Better at sexism than the decadent West, which is so lazy it can't be bothered to tell seven-year-olds they're ugly!
(Technorati tags: China, Olympics, sexism, Yang Peiyi)
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