<strong>More Fake than Hollywood?</strong> Probably not | Beijing Olympics 2008 | Opening Ceremonies at Schema : more than ethnic

More Fake than Hollywood? Probably not | Beijing Olympics 2008 | Opening Ceremonies

"The audience will understand that it's in the national interest," said a Chinese official about all the fakery exposed in the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony. The audacity! Secretly love the drama, don't you? *shameface*

Let's see...first of all, there's the fact the adorable little girl in the red dress who everyone wants to adopt was lip-synching...because Lang Peiyi, the girl with the sweet voice was not cute enough. Hopefully she gets free counselling sessions because after hearing that, who wouldn't be traumatized?: "Sorry, you're not cute enough, but your voice is choice. In fact, your face is a disgrace to China, so we're going to put this cute girl over here on stage, give her a red dress and pigtails, and let her lip-sync to your voice...and if you plan to make it to age 10, no one knows about this, okay?"

Then...it turns out those fireworks and "fire footprints" were digitized. Okay, the firework procession did actually happen but organizers said it was too difficult and dangerous to film, so we got to watch computer-generated film of what it might look like. We are such suckers!

But let's face it....around the world, regardless of national lines, the media and the powers to be (oooh, so X-files conspiracy) fake most of what you read/hear/see anyways. At least China boldly admitted it by basically saying, "So what? Our ceremony kicked ass with its beauty and ingenuity. It made people happy and proud. It made people forget about Tibet and pollution and poverty. We did our job. Now shut up about it. The end." There was no squirming and backtracking -- just straight up admission. Now, that's damn good fakery!

More: via Globe & Mail and Associated Press and Cele|bitchy and CNN and Guardian UK | Image Credit @ The Times | Fake building in Beijing | Dancer Liu Yan Injured and Paralyzed during Opening Ceremony rehearsal - Cover Up | Five Fuwa Beijing Olympic Mascots Banned