Chinese Hired to Cheer

By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer Aug 11, 12:03 pm EDT

BEIJING (AP)—It was a blowout, the United States women demolishing China 108-63

That couldn’t silence the cheering workers from Beijing’s Capital Steel, a 1,000-strong group that spread itself in square clusters around the Olympic basketball venue on Monday.

Highly visible in yellow T-shirts, they thumped plastic yellow batons, belted out “jia you, jia you” (let’s go in Chinese) and created enthusiasm that belied the score.

“Every single time when we made a mistake, they kept yelling for us, they kept cheering for us,” said Sui Feifei, one of China’s starting five. “We really should thank them.”

Just a few days into the Beijing Olympics, the egg-yoke yellow cheering sections have been spotted at every Olympic venue, part of a government-run program to make sure cheers are polite, organized and atmospheric—even if there isn’t much to cheer about.

The cheering squad from Capital Steel—a sprawling complex in west Beijing that is closed during the Olympics to cut down pollution—shared space with a few groups from other labor unions. But the mission was the same.

“We’ll not give up supporting China until the last minute,” said Huo Liangshan, a Capital Steel employee sitting near the top row in the 18,000-seat arena. “I like the atmosphere.”

China’s communist government has spent more than a year training people to cheer, organizing workshops that often took place in shopping malls or small theaters where workers were given time off to learn how and when to shout— depending on the sport.

“As usual, the Chinese fans were tremendous,” said Tina Thompson, who led the U.S. with 27 points.

Despite the highly regimented training, some of the cheering on Monday was chaotic and spontaneous—maybe a bit more fun than government organizers intended. In the run-up to the Olympics, Beijing city officials boasted citizens were leaning about 20 “civilized cheers.” On Monday, it was pretty much limited to “jia you, jia you.”

“We are supposed to have two group leaders in charge of the cheers, getting us organized,” said Wang Yan, a young woman with the foundry group. “I think the leaders got too busy watching the game and didn’t do their job.”

When the score was 45-14, the cheering clusters still crackled with applause.

They screeched at the halftime buzzer when Chen Xiaoli hit a jumper to cut the U.S. lead to a mere 61-27. At the final buzzer, when a Chinese player was unceremoniously stripped of the ball, several groups jumped to their feet to cheer.

“They are so gung-ho,” said Rossanna Wright, an American fan who said she experienced the same atmosphere at a men’s volleyball match a day earlier.

“They are just great. If they weren’t here, I’d miss them. They make the atmosphere.”

Nuff said...

False celebrity at the Olympics, is that a surprise?

Hmm.. gee, I wonder if there's any connection between the public pronouncements of the Chinese govt about Tibet and the idea that they needed a prettier girl to sing the title song? Or between fake fireworks and their position that they've always been in Tibet? Someone once said that truth will set you free - one can only hope that it will eventually free China, and by extension, free Tibet.

OLYMPIC CHILD SINGING STAR REVEALED AS A FAKE

By Charles Whelan Tue Aug 12, 8:30 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director has revealed.

Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday.

Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.

But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen said in an interview that appeared briefly on the news website Sina.com before it was apparently wiped from the Internet in China.

Lin was seen to perform the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland" as China's national flag was carried into the stadium, a key moment in the three hour ceremony.

"The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression," said Chen, a renowned contemporary composer and French citizen.

"Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in terms of voice, Yang Peiyi is perfect, each member of our team agreed," he said.

He said the final decision to stage the event with Lin lip-synching to another girl's voice was taken after a senior member of China's ruling Communist Party politburo attended a rehearsal.

"He told us there was a problem that we needed to fix it, so we did," he said, without disclosing further details of the order.

The Beijing Olympic organising committee confirmed the episode with spokesman Sun Weide saying the decision was taken in the interests of providing the best possible show.

"A number of girls were on the short list for the show and Lin was the best actress while Yang had the best voice," he said. "So at the end of the day they decided to have both."

The ceremony directed by China's Oscar-nominated filmmaker Zhang Yimou and featuring more than 15,000 performers won high praise in China and overseas for its breadth, scope and flawless execution.

However criticism began to build after it emerged that another part of the opening ceremony had been faked.

Supposedly live pictures of fireworks depicting footprints moving from central Beijing's Tiananmen Square to the Olympic stadium in the north of the capital were actually partly computer-generated or pre-recorded for TV, organisers have admitted.

Wang Wei, vice president of the organising committee, Tuesday insisted the fireworks had actually exploded on the night and that most of the television images used were genuine.

"However, because of the poor visibility of the night some previously recorded foots may have been used," he said.

Xiao Qiang, the director of the China Internet project at the University of California at Berkeley and former dissident, said the two incidents illustrated the political nature of the Games for China.

"I do not think the Chinese state realises how unethical this is, they don't understand what kind of values they are reflecting," he said.

Earlier this year Olympic organisers preoccupied with the right image for the country were criticised for insisting that only tall, slim, young and attractive women could serve as medal award ceremony hostesses.

OPENING CEREMONY ORGANISERS ADMIT FAKING IT ON FIREWORKS, CHILD STAR

Posted 7 hours 6 minutes ago

Fireworks explode over the Bird's Nest stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on August 8, 2008. (ABC News: Karen Barlow)

• Video: Chinese celebrate opening success (ABC News)
• Video: Opening ceremony dazzles crowd (ABC News)

Four days after the world was dazzled by the Beijing Opening Ceremony, details have emerged that organisers were forced to fake some key moments in the three-hour spectacle.

Games organisers say that poor visibility on the night forced them to run animations of fireworks and they also admitted that the star child singer was actually only in the stadium because of her good looks.

The fireworks around the Bird's Nest stadium were real, the television footage of fireworks in other parts of Beijing was not.

It turns out some opening ceremony footage was produced before the Games as a back-up and the vice-president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), Wang Wei, says it was needed because of the city's chronic air pollution problem.

"Because of the poor visibility on the night some previously recorded footage may have been used," he said.

However Wang Wei says most of the fireworks seen by billions of people around the world did actually happen on the night.

Keeping up appearances

The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director said.

Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and had not sung a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster.

Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.

But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the main Olympic stadium was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen said in the interview that appeared briefly on the popular news website Sina.com on Tuesday before it was wiped from the Internet.

Lin was seen to perform the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland" as China's national flag was carried into the stadium, a key moment in the three hour opening ceremony.

"The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression," he said.

"Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in terms of voice, Yang Peiyi is perfect, each member of our team agreed," he said.

- ABC/AFP