主题：来吧，都看看别人现在怎么看我们吧。 -- 锦候

A speck in China's eye.

We should deal with the proverbial log in our own eye first. North American media is rife with fakes - lip synching (Those "live" concerts that sound so great? Half the time they're not so "live", either.), photoshopped ads (I saw two ads featuring Scarlett Johannson in the same magazine; in one her beauty mark was visible, and gone in the other). It's time we stopped being critical of others' shortcomings and fixed our own first. Besides, attention should be on the accomplishments of the athletes, who have trained for years for the Olympics.

Posted by Sora Chan at 5:04 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

Agree 4 | Disagree 3 | Offensive

re: Saving Face

Like it or not, saving face has been a Chinese culture, not exclusive to Chinese Dictatorial Party, way before England was a country and before Europe started to have civilization. It is not false that "a government is judged mature..... how it deals with its (not it's) mistakes and problems ...." So, perhaps China should have enlisted/retained the expertise of the American/Canadian spin-docs!!!

Posted by shogun at 5:04 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Olympics = Sports?

The media that i've been following seems to be making such a big deal over all the politics and deceptions that seem to be going on over there. Ahem, what about the... SPORTS?? Afterall, isn't that what the Olympics is all about? The opening show was just that.. a show - a performance. Lip synching - think pretty much every bubblegum pop act in the last 15 years - and live 'post' production - think post waredrobe malfunction Superbowl halftime shows - happens everywhere around the world all the time, so enough already. I applaud both girls for their performance in what was a fun show to watch. Enjoy the next two weeks for what they really are, a celebration of sport. Not for what the media wants you to 'perceive' about China. I for one will enjoy the sports of the next two weeks and worry about international relations in the 4 years between Olympic games thank you very much (excluding during NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, Euro and International soccer games of course)!

Posted by big_papa_p at 5:00 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Fake footage

So what? Even NBC did it themselves. They shuffled the footage of athletes entering the ground so that the US entered the prime moment. At least the lip-syncing is discovered by Chinese media themselves.

Posted by SYSS Mouse at 4:57 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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How many medals have you earned so far Canada? (none!)

What outraged me the most is that does this story have to be the most important new of the day? It was on the cover of both Toronto Star and National Post. Why don’t you focus more on your own country’s business? Correct me if I’m wrong, it’s Day 3 of the Olympics, and Canada doesn’t even have one medal yet, not even a bronze!! Sure, an Ashely Simpson pull is not right, but can’t you just accept the fact that China is one of the powerhouse in the world, and where does Canada stand? Nowhere!

Posted by saiyao at 4:52 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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IN CASE YOU PEOPLE FORGOT

Do you remember a few years ago Britney Spears did lip-synch for MTV and Hollywood did the same thing some of shows or movies? Don't blame China Government, They had nothing to do with it. It's the director's idea just like the Hollywood would do the same thing! The fireworks are fake? I don't about that. I had see it myself and it's real enough.

Posted by 10 of 9 of borg at 4:43 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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It does matter

If China is aiming to be a world leader then they better be more fortright in their dealings with the rest of the world. This case may seem trivial to some but it does reflect how the Chinese accomplishes things. They do a lot of shortcuts for whatever reason - national glory, national image, etc.

Posted by enbs at 4:33 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Re: JNanu

If the Western media is going to focus on stories like these about people being selected on the basis of their appearance, then perhaps they should start off by focusing on the things that happen right here at home in North America. Disney theme parks are notorious for selecting "pretty" and young people to work on the park grounds, whereas all the "old" or "ugly" workers are assigned to cart off trash or things like that in underground tunnels so that visitors coming to the park don't see anything "unsightly". Selecting someone on the basis of physical appearance occurs ALL the time in Western countries, but you don't see people screaming about dishonesty or immorality when they see it here. These stories should not get more attention over human rights or pollution.

Posted by Pallas Athena at 4:24 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Gotta understand the intention (2or2)

... From what I see, acrificing individual for the society is deeply embedded in the Chinese people's mindset. I don't think an ordinary Western people can understand this. But we can't really say this is wrong. This is just how things work over there. This is all about culture difference between the Chinese and the westerners. Again, IMO, I think this move the Chinese officials are doing is completely unnecessary and they are just doing too much. But saying they are "wrong" is "wrong".

Posted by JL at 4:19 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Gotta understand culture difference (1 of 2)

First, I want to set thing straight to say I do not agree with the idea of combining the best voice and best face to the show. This is completely necessary. But instead of just pointing finger to the Chinese of bringing deception to the game, shouldn't we understand the motivation behind it? After talking to my friends in Beijing about this, I realized this is not even a news over there, obviously not a scandal at all. This is how things work, according to them. In their mind, running this Olympic game is all about "sacrifice", in order to make it to perfection. Just to name a few: Factory workers have to stop working in the duration of the game to reduce smog; Local people had to move out of their home to make room for stadiums; Drivers are banned from driving their cars every other day, etc. So, these 2 girls lip-sync incident is just one of the small sacrifice that had to made so to perfect the opening ceremony. TBC...

Posted by JL at 4:19 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Honestly? Scandalous?

Who cares if the footprints were pre-taped? Who cares if the kid was lip-synching? The real news is the 'pretty kid' scares me. That plastered on smile ain't right. But honestly, people lip-synch all the time. Superbowl, Saturday Night Live, national anthems, whatever. It's so funny to me that people are so indignant, like they have been defrauded or something. 99% of the opening ceremonies were real, live and stunning.

Posted by clementine at 3:04 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008

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Loser's mindset

Not to my surprise that the STAR did not miss such a GOLDEN opportunity to demonize China. So, there is a lip-sync, what is the bid deal? Have you ever seen "AIR FARCE LIVE" on CBC? Did you notice every once a while the audience applauded like crazy. Well, it was "fake". I've been to the studio as an audience. We applauded because the director asked us to do so. And there was even an illuminated sign "applause" overhead to instruct us when to applause. To Canada, it is just technical issue to achive a better showmanship. To China, it is now blown out of proportion to an ethic issue. Talking about hypercritical.

Posted by yichen at 2:35 PM Wednesday, August 13 2008