China baby girls beat American women gymnasts by 0.0001 points.
Michael Phelps continues to dominate at the Water Cube and NBC's live broadcast, shattering world records along the way.
News from the future: The whole opening ceremony is now revealed to be one big computer generated special effect, it's the biggest hoax since US moon landing in 1969. And Li Ning was NOT, I repeat, NOT actually walking on air when he lighted up the Summer Olympics BBQ.
UPDATE (as if anybody cares...) Nobody in his right mind would expect Li Ning actually walk on air to light up the Summer Olympics BBQ fire because that would be humanly impossible. But everyone in his right mind would expect the voice he hears is from the girl that is moving her mouth. There is no if or but, it's just wrong, period, end of discussion.
UPDATE:
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I never understood the criticism about the Chinese gymnasts being "too young" when they have competed in international events previously and when you have 14- year-old Tom Daley from Britain competing in diving. You didn't need to have reached 16 to compete so I don't see why BOCOC didn't just tell the Americans to feck off and mind their own business rather than producing (probably fake) passport proofs of their age.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the margin of the win is slightly bigger than what you've listed. It's exactly 1 point from what I remembered.
Both teams did well and both teams had girls who had an off-day on the beam. China deserved the gold because its young gymnasts recovered from their mistakes much better than the Americans.
Franking speaking, again and again gold medals for China Team didn't touch my heart, tomorrow I will fly to Taipei to back for the Chinese Taipei Baseball Team and other althetics
ReplyDeleteChina is a formidable team. I don't know if there is any age restriction in other games previously but apparently there is in the Olympics (only in recent years). So if there is such a 16 year old requirement, people should go by the rule even the rule maybe a bit arbitrary. If it's so bad let's just throw it out of the window but before we can do it, we should really stick to it, everybody even or especially China, the host country. So we have a more level playing field to compete on so to speak.
ReplyDeleteMay be diving can be younger or no age restriction? I don't know. I was a bit surprised when I saw Daley is 14.
In response to your update...
ReplyDeleteYou know what, this is not the first time the ESWN overwrought rationalization of the Beijing authorities' actions had made me lost my appetite. And it's really unfair as I was really enjoying the competitions! He might tell critics to lighten up and relax, I'd like to tell him to stop wasting his breath rationalising away the authorities' misjudgements over the lip-synch and the electronic fireworks and just admit for once that they made a bad call and their ingenuity backfired. The energy devoted to rationalising away the bad judgement stinks almost as bad as the bad judgement itself.
I don't get the impression that Soong is defending Beijing's decision. Rather I think he is reporting how the Western mainstream media are reporting on this and his opinion is he thinks it's rather irresponsible that mainstream media are outright saying that the reason Yang was not chosen was because China thought she has crooked teeth and looks chubby while no such words were ever uttered during the radio interview. I think that was his main criticism of the media. It was a fine point....
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the two girls sing together or one after another during the closing ceremony.
I bet you have seen the other picture of Yang already the one she is wearing the bunny ears, she is indeed very adorable. To be on the shortlist she can't be all that "ugly," can she? Given the whole atmosphere, she would just be as effective if she were the one out there.
Oh I wasn't referring to his first article, which is fair enough really and I do agree that the West is having way too much fun of this and having a field day of China-bashing.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm disgusted about is his article entitled something about the "fake singing gate". Scroll further down the page and you'd find it.
Okay I just found out that it's been dropped off the page and incorporated into his "Brief Comments Archive". (Which to me is kinda like the time he hid his unsavory re-posting of the human flesh search info regarding the alleged Tibetan activist in the US after realising that it was a case of false identity; or the other time when he hid his blatant re-posting of the video AND screen captures of a gang-rape of a Chinese school girl).
Anyway, you can click here:
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200808b.brief.htm#013
I respect that he's the executor of the Eileen Chang estate and all, and obviously his prodigious energy devoted to translating Chinese news articles into English is really admirable. But I really wouldn't say that I'm a fan of his socio-political opinions.
Anyway, I haven't seen the picture of her in bunny ears but to me even just the oft-used photo of her with her innocent smile and unfashionable haircut shows that she is a cute kid. I too would have loved to see her being presented on stage in the closing ceremony. Well here's hoping anyway...
Criticism comes from jealous and /or inferiority and /or fear. Most perfectionists' usual behaviors, actually come from their inner non-balance (repeating wars between their heads and hearts) that even they don't realize.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the comments on opening ceremony, director Cheung just wants to present the best audio & visual effects in his "movie" to his (their) audience. Quite common in Movie industry, even Hollywood !
Such presentation names as "multi-medias performance , that's quite common in cultural circle. Even in HK, named as "cultural desert", such performances appeared and developed more than 15 yrs ago. Most representative org now named "進念十二面体" !
Usually best natural voices come from little boys, not girls esp. solo. Sometime, even better than (I think so) a skillful soprano. Suggested DVD “Andrew Lloyd Webber – The Royal Albert Hall Celebration” ; Song # 12 – PIE JESU from Sarah Brightman & Ben De’ath.
ReplyDeleteThe decision of casting a girl instead of a boy, or which girl is more lovely .....are all subjective. Just an extra entertainment provided by the host, even out of his prediction!
Thanks LCL for re-posting the bunny-ear photo! She really is adorable :)
ReplyDeleteAK, I think you're rather missing the point. Nobody ever said anything against multimedia performance or having a girl sang the hymn, so your overwrought rationalisations, like Soong's over on ESWN, is rather beside the point. In any case, it wasn't the producer's original decision to have the lip-synch and switch the tape, it was a member of the Politburo who issued that last-minute edict and the producer insisted in the radio interview that there was nothing they could do but to accept the decision from on high. So trying to justify the decision on aesthetic grounds a posteri really stinks to high heaven. In any case, what you haven't noticed is the fact that people are in uproars over the rationale used for this last minute switheroo: that it was judged to be "against national interest" to have Yang sang live because she does not have a "flawless appearance". These are words coming from the producer himself during the radio interview. The latter meme about crooked teeth, etc. was only a meme, and Soong rightly called the Western media on it (but to be fair, these additional "rationales" were reported first by local media before the Western media picked it up and made a field day of it).
To me, it was actually the unrelenting perfectionism of the Chinese authorities which mars an otherwise fantastic show.
Oops, should have been "switcheroo" rather than "switheroo".
ReplyDeletetoday is the darkest day in Taiwan, both their baseball team and their Son of Taiwan, all made them disappointed
ReplyDeleteak:
ReplyDeleteCriticism comes from me, a guy who aren't jealous or feeling inferior. I think it pains Chen to tell the truth but I guess it would even pain him more not to tell the truth. I understand the difference in opinion in that matter. But I don't think it's all conspiracies to hold China down or to embarrass China or to manufacture controversies.... That's my thought.
wp2007
ReplyDeleteStop exaggerating, will you? Get back to do your push-up in the playground already.
I am in the eye of the storm, I should have say
ReplyDeleteIt is a matter of cultural differences. If you ask a million Chinese on this subject, 99.9% would say it is no big deal. It is just a show, and in that show it has to be 'perfect'. Therefore the firewoks were fake, the voice was fake and the ethnic children were fake. Yes, the Westerners are also concerned about the long term psychological damage to Yang when at such a young age and on such a big occasion she was told by some politburo members as not attractive enough. But who is going to have the last laugh in life? Lin or Yang? Beautiful children may not turn out to be beautiful adults. As far as I know, no one ever called Sid handsome well into his late teens. But he is generally regarded as a good-looking guy right now.
ReplyDeleteVincent
wp2007:
ReplyDeleteWould you please stop exaggerating now? Go back to do your push-up in the playground and msn with your friends.
Vincent:
No, a lot of folks in China disapprove that. It's not a big deal in the sense that I am not going to lose any sleep over it.
I expect the difference in opinion on that. I think if Chen didn't think it's a big deal he wouldn't even have brought it up himself. It's a hard decision to make, because deep down he was not entirely comfortable to do this perfect image and voice mashed up kind of thing. Of course, that's my pure speculation. Everybody has his standard of "artistic integrity." For me I don't give a flying fuck about the firework not being filmed live, it's just firework, there is no direct human emotion there, and I guess it looked impossible to be that perfect anyway. Again when it comes to singing in a live show, I fully expect somebody actually sings and given the circumstances maybe sing to a prior recording of her own voice. I think that's what most people would expect from any live show from anywhere. So this is a first, ground breaking sort of way to run a singing segment of a live show. From hereon now, it would be totally acceptable or even ingenious to use a better looking person to front a better singing voice, so you have the best of both worlds so to speak. If technically possible I think then people may use entirely computer generated images to have the perfect look too.
Man, I am old school, I fully expect the girl singing to her own voice live or otherwise. I have to adjust my expectation from here on.
Regarding Sid, I think he is rocking now. He washes himself every day, changes his underwear so I guess that helps a lot.
wp, you are a typical Type 7 (Enneagram). I see a naughty big boy clapping hands. Come on, more participation more fun before school bells ring. don't you know you are a tresure to yr friends ?
ReplyDeleteI wonder why I became a detonator again,maybe too much nutritious food Itake after operations.... Better shift my energy to my holidays rather than chat, to aviod a loselose situation that I hate.
The one who uphold their master-position of their own lives, can have their last laugh in lives and even all the times. Just a shift in mind, less than a second.
ReplyDeleteEven the well-developed technology today can't give us a long-lasting beautiful outlook, why not look deep inside which can be a long-lasting.
Then likes of Chens are too Westernised to my taste. For a Chinaman like me who is used to that kind of fakes in an emerging superpower, I couldn't have cared less. For Sid, he is washing/changing his Calvin Klein everyday. I'm eating my heart out.
ReplyDeleteVincent
2 more "scandals" again discovered by Western (or Taiwan ?) media, in local (Taiwan) TV, the show in Opening Ceremony, 55 (ethic minorities) kids are all Han (Chinese) kids, one of the Baby Girl of China Gymanasts who claimed over 16, she was being found in another articles of NCNA (Xinhua) in sometimes ago she was 13, but as no protest from US team, so the judge will not follow up
ReplyDelete