By Kim Heung-sook
Anger had almost departed from me in recent years but instantly came back surging when I read a couple of China reports. They were on the seven-year-old Yang Peiyi who sang the ``Ode to the Motherland'' during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics to give a cute little human touch to the grandiose presentation.
Peiyi voice was synchronized with the lips of nine-year-old Lin Miaoke. ``It was an ode to a fakery," Bill Plaschke aptly described in the Los Angeles Times Wednesday and I totally agree with him. I also concur with him in that ``the only truly human part of the ceremony'' was faked.
Peiyi was saved from the center of the extravaganza as she was chubby and had crooked teeth, the reports said. ``It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi," Chen Qigang, the music director, told the Beijing Radio. ``We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance… The audience will understand that it's in the national interest.''
We Koreans believe that one thing tells 10 things and I think the case of Peiyi tells it all. I've finally given up the ``benefit of the doubt'' attitude about human rights conditions in the giant country, which I used to keep despite numerous accusations and allegations by the so-called Western media. Still, that doesn't alleviate my anger and heartache for the two little girls.
Peiyi is not the only victim in this unsavory episode: Miaoke stood in the spotlight, but was she aware of what she was doing? She was quoted as saying, ``I felt so beautiful in my red dress,'' but did she know that her voice was silenced to air Peiyi's? Did she understand that she was cheating the world audience by synchronizing her mouth to the voice of a younger girl? I would like to know what the officials told her.
Likewise, I wonder what they said to Peiyi about using her voice but not her face. Peiyi was quoted as telling the China Central Television that just having her voice used was an honor. But, at seven, isn't she too young to be modest? What if the modesty was forced? What if she said so after hearing lies or half lies about her shadowed performance? I wonder if Chen and his associates told her truth, the whole truth.
While I am not sure what the political grown-ups obsessed with a flawless Olympiad told the girls, I'm sure about one thing that they will find out the truth sooner or later and that they will get hurt eventually. Lies don't last forever even when they are told by a forceful nation like China. Or, do the officials think that Peiyi and Miaoke won't mind such wrongdoings, since they already know of worse cruelties imposed on some peers?
The greatest mystery is how come the officials couldn't find a girl who has a pleasant appearance and a beautiful voice. After all, China is the world's largest and most populous country with over 1.3 billion people, and there should be a great number of girls with the perfect face and voice they were searching. Or, did they fail to find one because their hunt was limited to the daughters of some inner circle people?
Five minutes into watching the massive opening, I thought I had seen similar scenes somewhere. As time passed, it gradually dawned on me that that somewhere was ``Hero," the blockbuster epic film by Zhang Yimou. Now that the first week of the fortnight festivity has passed, we have seen more than one hero. The sad thing, therefore, is not the lack of heroes but the fact that the heroes or the sea of men and women who performed on nearly every repertoire of the hours-long opening will be forgotten, while the inhumane replacement of the angelic singer lives on.
Spectators inside and outside the stadium may forget the fluttering of the Chinese and Olympic flags in a breeze, which, reports say, was timely yet artificially presented by special devices in the flagpoles. They may also forgo talks about the computer graphic skills used in ``footprint" fireworks, but who will ever forget what the great nation has done to two little girls?
The man-made breeze and CG can be passed over as they didn't hurt any innocent minds, but not so the lip sync. Someday, when the girls mature and come to figure out what happened to them on the night of Aug. 8, 2008 in the heart of their great capital, they will probably find the ``Ode to the Motherland," if not their motherland itself, a poor joke. For the first time in years, I feel my anger is justified. How about you?