Lip-synch: Chinese pull a 'Kusumi' in Beijing

Lin Miaoke: Nice kid, phony voice.

Oops. Chinese organizers of the 2008 Summer Olympics decided to tweak the opening ceremonies a couple times Friday and have been called on the carpet about it by an increasingly bold international media covering the Games.

First was the faked “footprint” fireworks over the city; those were obvious computer-generated simulations, and NBC admitted that as such, but it was unclear during the otherwise spectacular opening ceremonies whether the “footprint” fireworks were indeed fakes.

Yang Peiyi: Too ugly for Olympics.

However, a far more serious problem has surfaced – the lip-synching of an Olympic song by a 9-year-old girl, Lin Miaoke. But unlike Hello! Project’s anime-linked star Kusumi, the voice lip-synched was not Miaoke’s, but another girl, Yang Peiyi, whose voice was deemed “perfect” but whose teeth were not.

Hence, the switch.

Now, say what you want about Kusumi, or any of the Hello! Project concerts where some singers are indeed lip-synching their songs. But at least Tsunku has the performers lip-synch their own voices. The Chinese incident is more of a Nilli Vanilli-caliber, where a kid who looks the part is forced to mouth the singing of another.

At least Kusumi, shown at right with Eri, January 2008, lip-synchs over her own voice.

Lin Miaoke, foreground: Were the other kids lip-synching the Olympic Anthem?

Audrey Hepburn, where are you? Recall that the star of the film version of “My Fair Lady” never sang a note of the actual songs. She lip-synched them all. Same goes for Natalie Wood in the film version of “West Side Story.” All act, no sing.

There is some defense of the Chinese organizers’ intent. They wanted the perfect combination of sound, color and motion for the one-shot-only opening ceremonies, and they got it. They just should have used Lin Miaoke’s own voice. It couldn't have been that bad.

This is Rad signing off – for now.