Comments on My Sliding Scale of Forgery

methinks the real singer is just as cute.

Once again the Mao-centric beauty standards are substituted for the world-centric judgement that the girl not allowed to appear on stage was just as cute as the one put on display who lacked the talent.

Fakes and trickery - the pleasant Yes reply - this is the way of China - never to admit that women have worth or that you can disagree.

Perception.

@1 she's not.

But more importantly, who cares?

So it's 'Marni Nixon Goes to China?'

more importantly this just confirms that china cheats at everything and steals everything and it is inherently a chinese cultural tradition just as much as the corrupt local bureaucrat.

I don't get it. It was an amazing spectacle. Concepts like "fake" don't mean a thing here. Just sit back and admire the wonder of it. Where else is so much money and effort poured into a purely artistic entertainment?

Right, and everyone who plays the Super Bowl, everyone at the Grammies, every singer who employs a retinue of on-stage dancers and spends most of each performance in an aerobic workout yet seems to be able to sing without wheezing and choking - they're just that good.

I'm totally confused why people think digital is fake. Were there artists who produced the fireworks? Yes. Did a real little girl sing the song? Yes. If a computer-generated voice had sung the song, would an artist still have been involved with creating the voice? Yes. What, exactly, is fake about digital art? If digital art is fake, then all art is fake, in that it is a representation of the natural. Aren't "real" fireworks merely art in the medium of explosives?

On another subject, the little girl who was on stage wasn't talentless, as inferred by previous comments. She could sing quite well too, it just wasn't what the producers wanted.

@5 Soooo beat me to it.

To the people who don't get it - Um, it was a little girl who shouldn't know that people think she isn't pretty enough to represent her country. That's pretty crushing.

I think the big deal is that the little girl who actually sang was told that she was so un-pretty that it was harmful to the national interest.

You would think that with 1.3 Billion people they could find a pretty 9 year old girl that can sing. Oh, wait a minute, the Chinese version of pro-choice is to choose to only give birth to boys... How very progressive!

I'd just like to point out here one more time that the footprint fireworks did actually happen - real, actual, tangible fireworks:

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

From the UK Telegraph:

"The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air. As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird's Nest was captured on film."

Yes, those shown on TV were a CGI version of the real thing - but it's not as if they were a complete fabrication.

Moving on: Denying a child the experience of a once-in-a-lifetime performance on the basis of being "not cute enough" is a much worse offense. But does this really differ from showbiz practices in this country? Nope.

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Stop her! That's the girl whose voice you heard and loved tonight. She's the real star of the picture. Kathy Selden!