How well those girls performed!!!

I really cannot understand the controversy surrounding the fact that the girl who appeared to be singing at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was in fact only lip syncing to a song sung by another girl.

Apparently the Chinese authorities had decided that seven year old Yang Peiyim, who's golden voice held us mesmerised, was not pretty enough to symbolise the Motherland. So, wide eyed Lin Miaoke was made to get into that red frock and lip sync the song.

The Chinese authorities have been made out to be some kind of authoritarian devils who are breaking the morale of a talented girl by calling her ugly. Utter nonsense, I feel. Nobody called her ugly - they just said she was not the most beautiful schoolgirl in China, a fact that she would already be aware of. By using her voice, the authorities are actually conferring a great honour on her - that of being adjusted the best singer in the country. Why then, should she also be led to believe she is also attractive. Till the media focussed on her, I am sure the thought of being unattractive never even entered her mind - she would have merely known that she was not the most attractive child in the block. Wonder how she will now cope with being branded unattractive by the world media?

And what about the other girl - the wide eyed girl who's performance was nothing short of remarkable even if all she did was lip sync. To face a live audience of about a hundred thousand people, with billions more watching on television, and put up a flawless performance is truly commendable. Whether or not the voice was hers, her poise and her confidence cannot be underestimated. And to club her as an dumb bimbette merely because she happens to be pretty is to do her great injustice.

As a mother, I cannot but be impressed by the performance of both the girls, and hope that neither is adversely affected by the current controversy.

And as a viewer, I totally understand the organisers (I don't want to call them authorities) wanting to combine the best of two girls to achieve the best result.

At the end of the day, the Opening Ceremony is a show that is put on to wow the World, and I see nothing unethical in a bit of harmless lip syncing, specially since the combined performance was nothing short of Wow.