Chinese in Vancouver

New CIV home is now up and running :)

2008-09-03T21:51:00.004-07:00

Hello readers,

The new home of CIV is now almost ready (still fine tuning broken links but i guess i would never able to complete :P).

Two new posts there today. Please check out chineseinvancouver.ca

Thank you very much.

Susanna Ng

CIV is moving to a new home soon...

2008-08-30T02:44:00.004-07:00

Hello CIV friends,

I've decided to find CIV a more permanent home. I've roughly set up a site with domain:

www.chineseinvancouver.ca

(not all the links are working yet)

hopefully the more intuitive domain will help readers type fewer characters getting to us. :PPP

I'd like to see if our readers have something to say about the new look and feel before I finally open it to business. Please feel free to give me any comments and suggestions. :)))

Sydney paper: 'Western media shows its ugly face'

2008-08-27T17:17:00.003-07:00

An article appears on Sydney Morning Herald reflects on how the western media have been handling the "chubby face, crooked teeth" incident. Hope we can see more of these self-reflections from the western media.

(Related CIV discussion here.)

The title of the story is: Western media shows its ugly face

Here's an excerpt (full article here):

Chen's comments strongly imply an unnamed leader considered that Yang's replacement, nine year-old Lin Miaoke, had a "flawless" image. But the bit about Yang's alleged ugliness, chubby face or uneven teeth was a Western media description repeated a thousand times across the world - as if it was the verified judgment of the Chinese Government.

Hundreds of foreign journalists, most of whom cannot speak Chinese and had been in China for only a week or so, replicated each other's stories without bothering or having the time or ability to check the evidence themselves.

The Western media tended to portray Yang as the victim because the communist state deemed her too ugly for a place in the global spotlight. But perhaps if we had the facts straight we might have focused more on her nine-year-old replacement, Lin Miaoke.

Lin may still not know that her voice was not the one heard by billions of television viewers.

"At her house no one has spoken about this," a relative of Lin Miaoke told the Herald yesterday.

"We have prevented her from looking at the comments that have been posted on her website. There are many people who have attacked her and the family for being 'fake' and having no sense of shame.

"I'm worried that she does understand a little of this. My greatest worry is that when she starts school [after the summer holidays] all her school friends will ask about it. And it will break Miaoke's young heart.

"She is a beautiful singer but her voice is soft. I don't know exactly what happened."

The fact that Chen Qigan and the movie director Zhang Yimou helped shape the opening ceremony shows that the Chinese state is making some room for art over politics. The fact both men have given extensive and revealing interviews to the Chinese media hints at the epic, evolving struggle between art and politics in China.

At these Olympics there has been ample evidence of government obfuscation, fabrication and authoritarianism. But the complexity of China's epic struggle with itself is often lost.

Sydney Olympic faked it too! Where was/is the attention from the western media?

2008-08-26T12:35:00.009-07:00

While Beijing might have used one girl to mime another to sing on the Olympic opening ceremony, Sydney used an entire orchestra to mime for another on stage during the 2000 Olympic's opening show.

Australia's newspaper The Age uncovered this shocking news, and yet, the musicians asked to sign "confidentiality agreement" weren't allowed to speak. At the very least, Beijing didn't put up a gag order upon its musical director Chen Qigang, singer/performer Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke. You tell me, who is greater cheater?

When The Age names this the "great Olympic musical deceptions of our time", let's observe how the western media drum up on this one. We then can all have a good sense of whether the western media are biased or not.

BTW, The Age's report was out two days ago on Aug 24, 2008, so far I have heard/seen/read nothing about the Australian embarrassment in any Canadian media yet.

(Thanks Taikor for the great discovery.)

Great Olympic musical deceptions of our time

The Age - SYDNEY has its Opera House - but has it got a real orchestra? Within days of NSW Premier Morris Iemma making unwise cracks about Melbourne being left off the World Monopoly board, The Sunday Age can reveal that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra mimed key parts of its performance at the opening of the Sydney Games in 2000.

And it gets better - it was, in fact, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra whose brilliant playing was heard by millions around the world at the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony.

The MSO's superior sounds (pre-recorded just for the ceremony) were played as the orchestra went through the motions - the showbiz short cut of using "backing tapes", usually done to carry ageing or incompetent performers. Remember Milli Vanilli?

So, when everyone was tut-tutting about seven-year-old singer Yang Peiyi being replaced by the "prettier" Lin Miaoke for the Beijing Games opening two weeks ago, there must have been much squirming at the SSO's Pitt Street headquarters.

For eight years it has been one of the best-kept secrets in Sin City.

Please read the full article from The Age.

Well commented by the Sydney Morning Herald:

Madonna has done it, so have Milli Vanilli and the "flawless" Chinese singer Lin Miaoke. But miming isn't a technique associated with the world's great orchestras.

P.S. As of Aug 26, 2008 11:37 a.m. ET, a Google search for "Sydney Olympic" (tried to make the search as broad as possible) only gave me ONE return on the Sydney miming fiasco that was reported by non-Australian media. This was done by the New York Times with a headline so unprovocative that I almost missed it: "Sydney Comes Clean on Olympic Miming".

Rogge: girls' age 'OK at first sight'

2008-08-23T23:35:00.003-07:00

Bloomberg - A Chinese Olympic gymnastics champion whose age is under investigation had her date of birth incorrectly registered at a tournament last year, leading to inaccurate reports of her age, Chinese officials said today.

The International Olympic Committee this week asked the international gymnastics ruling body to probe the age of He Kexin following the emergence of Chinese media reports from last year that, if accurate, indicated she was younger than the 16- year-old minimum for Olympic gymnastics.

"The Chinese Gymnastics Association has conducted serious checks (of He Kexin's age)," said Cui Dalin, China's deputy Chef de Mission, at a press conference today in Beijing. "When He was transferred to another team to attend last year's National City Games, her age was registered wrongly."

He was listed as 13 in a Nov. 3, 2007, report by the state- run Xinhua News Agency. The International Gymnastics Federation said yesterday that it's still gathering information about the ages following the IOC request.

"The registration error caused all the misunderstanding thereafter," said Cui. "All Chinese gymnasts meet age requirements for the Olympics."

China has submitted legal documents, including passports and identification cards to the federation, he said.

The documents looked "OK at the first sight," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters at a separate news conference today, relaying the federation's early findings.

The federation is continuing a "thorough check" before reporting to the IOC, Rogge said. The ruling body for gymnastics, in a statement late yesterday, said the process "may take some time."

The Chinese last week defeated the Americans to win the team competition, and He won gold in the uneven bars over Nastia Liukin of the U.S. Lu Shanzhen, chief coach of the women's gymnastics team, said Aug. 22 that the suspicion about ages had affected the team's preparation.

"Such doubt emerged just because China's women gymnasts confronted the U.S. team strongly," she said.

Xinhua's 2007 story said He was 13 when she won the championship on uneven bars at the National City Games in central China's Wuhan city last year. The agency said last week the story was accurate based on the information provided at the games and that it would not issue a correction.

Huang Yubin, chief coach of the Chinese gymnastics team, said two days ago that doubts were raised because of the smaller physique of Asian athletes. He weighs 33 kilograms (73 pounds), while Liukin is 45kg.

"Because Asian gymnasts are different in terms of physiques, there is this kind of doubt, which shouldn't have happened," he told reporters today.

AP: Maybe it's time to open Olympics to all ages

2008-08-22T21:11:00.001-07:00

AP - Being a young gymnast wasn't always a bad thing. Nadia Comaneci, after all, was just 14 when she scored a perfect 10 to win gold in Montreal.

The philosophy of the time was old enough to vault, old enough to compete.

The way a budding age scandal has clouded the gymnastic competition in these games, maybe it's time to return to the days when no one had to produce an ID to compete.

The age issue resurfaced Friday with the International Olympic Committee urging the people who run gymnastics to make sure five Chinese gymnasts are really 16 as the Chinese claim. The IOC did so after being prodded by U.S. officials to take one last look at the true ages of medal winners He Kexin, Yang Yilin and others.

There's some motivation behind the U.S. request, which came days after the IOC and gymnastics officials declared themselves satisfied. Should the Chinese be found to be underage, there's a couple of gold medals that could be inherited.
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It's a longshot because ages are verified by passports and the two gymnasts have passports showing they are 16. And the International Gymnastics Federation isn't going to find any official evidence showing otherwise.

But there are questions that haven't been answered.

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists posted on official Chinese sports Web sites that showed He listed as being born Jan. 1, 1994, and Yang on Aug. 26, 1993. That would make both of them 14, not the 16 the Chinese now say they are.

And the reason the Chinese might have to tell a fib? Simple, young girls make perfect gymnasts, with their bodies and minds uncluttered with the fear of falling and failure.

Worked for Comaneci. And some think it worked for the Chinese here.

It wouldn't be the first time a country tried to pull a fast one in gymnastics. North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered one of the country's gold medalists was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

But the idea that either the IOC or FIG will step in and do something about Chinese medalists who look suspiciously like 12-year-olds who raided their mother's makeup drawer is almost laughable.

That's despite a controversy that already seems older than some of the girls.

Take one look at them and it's clear to an untrained eye they're awfully young. They have little teeth, unformed bodies and carry themselves with the gait of girls who have yet to begin planning their Sweet 16 parties.

At the end of last year the Chinese government's own official news agency, Xinhua, reported that He Kexin was 13, identifying her as one of the sport's upcoming stars. And He looks even older than Yang Yilin, the other medal winner in question.

But they have passports, and they have identity cards. To rule against them would be akin to charging the host country with forgery and fraud, something that's not about to happen during these games.

"The Chinese government and the Chinese athletes must be respected," China coach Lu Shanzan warned.

Lu claimed the parents of the gymnasts were indignant about the whole thing, though he didn't bring any forward to say so. Interestingly enough, Yang told reporters after winning a bronze in the all-around that she hadn't been home in more than a year, didn't know when she last saw her parents, and didn't know if they were watching the Olympics.

There's no real way of telling how old any athletes are if their governments want to go to great lengths to hide their ages. And we'll probably never know the true ages of He and Yang unless they decide 10 years from now to tell their story.

The real question might be why there is an age limit in the first place. The reasoning behind making 16 the minimum age in 1997 was to protect young girls from injury, but if ages can't be enforced there's not much point to keeping an artificial limit.

There's a lot of other young athletes in these games, including a 12-year-old swimmer from Cameroon and a 13-year-old swimmer from Seychelles. The U.S. even has a 15-year-old diver on its team.

Young athletes aren't the real problem. It's the parents, coaches and countries who drive them to compete at too young an age that make it an issue.

Maybe it's time to open the Olympics to all ages.

China wins all 3 ping pong medals

2008-08-22T20:37:00.003-07:00

Wow! Quite a scene!

Three Chinese flags are raised for gold medalist Zhang Yining, silver medalist Wang Nan, and bronze medalist Guo Yue, during the medal presentation of the women's singles table tennis competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing,Friday, Aug. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)

IOC orders probe over Chinese gymnast's age

2008-08-21T23:41:00.001-07:00

What do you think about this one?? I don't want to believe it but....

According to this Hong Kong blogger (in Chinese), Chinese netizens have been digging out a lot of evidence, including info released previously by the General Administration of Sports of China in 2006. In that article titled "2006 list of registered athletes of all sports categories" (关于公布2006年度各项目注册运动员名单的通知), He Kexin's birthday was listed as January 1, 1994. But of course when I clicked into the "gymnasts" link today, it gave me a 404 error page.

The China Media Project by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong has a collection of previous China media reports on He's age.

However, I still cling on a thin hope that none of these is true. Let's all wait and see for another while.

Reuters - The International Olympic Committee has asked the Interna ional Gymnastics Federation to investigate claims that Chinese double gold medallist He Kexin is younger than the eligible age to compete in the Games.

He, registered at the Beijing Olympics as 16, won team gold and a gold on the asymmetric bars. She was registered as having been born on Jan. 1, 1992. Gymnasts must turn 16 in the year of the Games to be allowed to compete.

"Given that there have been some discrepancies regarding her age that have come to light, we have asked the FIG to look into this matter," an IOC official told Reuters.

"It is because of these discrepancies that we have asked for this investigation to start."

FIG spokesman Philippe Silacci declined to comment, but a statement earlier this month from the governing body said strict measures were taken when sorting out accreditation and that the IOC had confirmed all gymnasts' passports had been valid.

He's age has been under scrutiny since the start of the Games and various media have reported she had competed in past events under a different birthdate.

A U.S. computer expert had said in emails to the media on Thursday he had uncovered Chinese state documents that proved He was born in 1994 and not 1992.

The caption on a photograph published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua last year referred to "13-year-old He Kexin".

He, who pipped American Nastia Liukin under the tiebreak rule to snatch the Olympic asymmetric bars title, has repeatedly faced questions over her age at news conferences.

Each time she has replied: "My real age is 16. I don't care what other people say."

As well as He, others who have come under scrutiny in American media for their age are her team mates Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin. They were not named by the IOC in its call for an investigation.

China have had their most successful showing in the gymnastics at an Olympics, winning nine gold medals out of the 14 up for grabs.

Which country fakes more?

2008-08-20T22:30:00.002-07:00

An extremely funny and insightful post from macedoniaonline.eu: Please read on, you won't regret :)

China Fakes Olympics - US Fakes Most Everything

Are you enjoying watching the fake Olympics? By "fake," of course, I'm referring to all the fabrications that have emerged since the opening of the event. Each day, it seems, brings news of yet another fabrication by China. Here's a short list of the fabrications that have been discovered so far:

• The weather is fake: Beijing is usually a smog pit with air so polluted that city-dwellers there almost never see the sun. To artificially clean up the air and create the image that Beijing is a clean city (it isn't), Chinese officials ordered the shutting down of virtually all manufacturing plants, coal-fired power plants, and automobiles. They've basically shut down Beijing to create the impression that it's a clean city, and when there's still smog, they just call it, "mist." (Tony Snow couldn't have spun it better, huh?)

• The free speech is fake: All the freedom protestors who might have spoken out against China during the Olympics have been arrested and imprisoned, thereby creating the impression that there is no public dissent in China. (Need a kidney, anyone? Organs are suddenly available...)

• The opening ceremony was faked: The fireworks displayed during the opening ceremony were faked using pre-programmed computer generated images. Instead of watching live fireworks, viewers around the world were actually watching 3D computer animation.

• The Internet access is censored: Reporters from around the world have all had their internet access censored by Chinese authorities, restricting them from accessing websites that might be "dangerous" (like sites on religion or meditation).

• The singing was lip-synced by a pretty girl to replace an ugly girl: It turns out the beautiful voice singing the opening song of the ceremony did not belong to the face of the girl who was lip-syncing it. The actual singer, it turns out, was a bit too ugly to represent China, so they faked it and replaced the girl's face with a cuter-looking girl who lip-synced the whole performance. Millie Vanilli, anyone?

• Swimmer Michael Phelps' food is fake: Consuming a whopping 12,000 calories a day, Michael Phelps is a junk food junkie powered by empty calories. While you can get away with that when you're 23 and exercising six hours a day, if Phelps continues his ingestion of fake food beyond his peak training years, he'll soon have REAL diabetes and obesity. Fat makes you float, by the way, so it might actually provide real buoyancy to his swimming career...

• The ages and passports are faked: The Chinese gymnastics team won gold, helped in part by a tiny gymnast who, according to China's own media, was 13 years old just nine months ago. Amazingly, she is now 16 years old, which just happens to be the minimum age to compete in the Olympics. This astonishing acceleration of aging is, of course, fully denied by Chinese authorities who provided forged passports for the girl to "prove" she was really 16. The IOC apparently has no interest in investigating this apparent fraud.

So I hope you're enjoying the fake Olympics. Most of the athletes are real, of course. Their remarkable feats of human artistry, strength, endurance and athleticism are real, but the whole show surrounding it is fake, fake, fake! It's all a fabricated show to keep the world occupied while your money, your health and your future is stolen from you by the criminal institutions of the world (governments, corporations, etc.), many of which are actually sponsoring the Olympics.

Much in America is fabricated, too...

Now, just in case you think China is the only country engaged in fakery, let me remind you that the United States is just as fake, but in different ways. In the U.S.:

• The war on terrorism is fake: It was all fabricated to keep the population in a state of fear so they wouldn't notice their freedoms being stolen away.

• The mainstream media is fake: The news is largely fabricated or selectively edited to brainwash American consumers into thinking they live in a free country. Corporate press releases are run as "news" and any real news that threatens big advertisers is routinely censored.

• The money supply is fake: The U.S. is running on monetary fumes, borrowing trillions from countries like China that actually have REAL money, all while claiming the national debt doesn't matter anymore. (It does.)

• The housing bubble was fake: As publicly predicted here nearly two years ago, the housing bubble was fake, creating false wealth that created the impression that the economy was doing well. The whole thing was a charade, of course, and now housing values are plummeting and consumer spending is in a tailspin.

• Health care is fake: There's no "health" in health care, and the entire disease industry in the United States is based on keeping people sick, ignorant and bankrupt.

• The corporate green movement is fake: Corporations love to act like they're really "green" even as they continue polluting the planet.

• Even the breasts are fake! The U.S. is the plastic surgery capital of the world, where moms are now giving their teenage daughters breast augmentation surgery as a high school graduation present.

It's quite fitting, then, that American viewers who live in a fabricated American reality can watch the fake Olympics by tuning into a fake television network where they can watch a fake opening ceremony that celebrates competition among fraudulent Olympics participants who compete for the only thing that's still real in this global economy: GOLD! /Mike Adams

Threat to a people, not patriotism, matters

2008-08-18T17:14:00.005-07:00

I'm completely appalled by some comments made by Mr Cheuk Kwan to the Globe and Mail today in an article/discussion titled "Has Chinese patriotism changed?"

I don't agree with many points Mr Kwan raised but I respect his opinions. However, I cannot remain silent on his statements quoted as follows, which in my opinion, do not have grounds:

... mainland Chinese, and by extension, Chinese Canadian immigrants often do not distinguish the three separate entities: Chinese people, Chinese as a nation, and the Chinese government. And that distinction is not made very clear by the Chinese-language media in Canada, where most immigrants still get their news. ree separate entities: Chinese people, Chinese as a nation, and the Chinese government. And that distinction is not made very clear by the Chinese-language media in Canada, where most immigrants still get their news.

A participant sent in a following up question:

Springfire from ShenZheng China: Mr. Kwan said: 'because mainland Chinese, and by extension, Chinese Canadian immigrants often do not distinguish the three separate entities: Chinese people, Chinese as a nation, and the Chinese government.' Do I hear it right? Essentially Mr. Kwan is saying that these Chinese are just stupid. Who the hell you are, Mr. Kwan to judge that?

And Mr Kwan replied:

Cheuk Kwan: Dear Springfire, I feel sorry for you if you don't understand what I am trying to say. Many Chinese, perhaps you included, have been conditioned by centuries of history and by your current government into thinking the three entities are the same.

I'm a Chinese born and raised in Hong Kong and have been living in the west long enough to be certain that I am not influenced or conditioned by any government. To me, the Chinese people, China as a nation and the Chinese government are distinctive of each other. Just like I don't meddle with the terms "the Canadians, Canada as a nation and the Canadian government".

If Mr Kwan ever goes online to check out those popular online forum where Chinese immigrants debate on everything from taxes, welfare, crimes to Canadian politics, and the Olympics, China etc etc, he could easily read a lot of comments critical of the Chinese government (and aslo the Canadian government). And let me help Mr Kwan understand, these are "recent mainland immigrants". As I said in another post, many of the mainland friends I talked to disagree with Beijing in many ways on its Olympic grandstanding. But that doesn't prevent them to cheer on both China's Guo Jingjing and Canada's Carol Huynh (myself included).

I also said before it was the feeling of an "ethnic crisis" -- that the west are reluctant to accept the Chinese as peace-loving global citizens AS A PEOPLE -- that has united all Chinese around the world after the Tibet riot etc. It's not necessarily the CCP government per se that the Chinese rallied behind. You can be critical of your government while still you'd stand on guard for your country and people when they are threatened by evil forces.

Clearly, the Chinese aren't as dumb as Mr Kwan and many western media would love to believe. Besides, how could Mr Kwan make a judgemental statement that Chinese do not distinguish between "Chinese people, Chinese as a nation, and the Chinese government" and so doesn't the Chinese language media? Did he do any survey on this? Any research evident to support his claims? If this is something made out of the blue and hence is just Mr Kwan's opinion, he should not have made it look like it were the fact and the fact we all share.

Quite in the contrary, Mr Kwan's concern of "3 Chinese" is EXACTLY the problem of the west when they address news related to the Chinese and/or China in general. The west, especailly the western media (and I cannot agree with Mr Kwan on his belief that the Globe and Mail's China reports are fair and balanced), is accustomed to lump all Chinese together, as if we are manufactured with one mould and thus do not have independent thinking and judgement. Mr Kwan himself in one example. I'd argue strongly that his words that got published in the G&M (and guess why so) cannot represent the majority of Chinese Canadians.

I wonder how long hasn't Mr Kwan visited China? Has he ever discussed in depth on Chinese government policies with "recent mainland Chinese immigrants"? Has he ever read any debate on internet forums frequented by Chinese Canadian immigrants? Mr Kwan has a lot to catch up with his knowledge about the Chinese Canadians before he should sell himself as representing the community. Please help the rest of us to stop spreading stereotypes of the Chinese people that the west loves to stick to.

For a quick reference, perhaps Mr Kwan could get an education from a comment left to the end of his G&M article by this gentleman:

Marcus T from Toronto, Canada writes: I visit China often and I work with the people in the Academies. I was in Tibet for an extensive visit and came back to only about about two weeks before the riot in March. I have been back to China several times since then and I have witness the rise of the resentment amongst the Chinese people , particularly the young, against the western media and some political commentators and spokesmen for their 'sin' in the handling of the Tibet incident. This sentiment grew at a phenomenal rate following the disruptions of the Olympic Torch runs in London, Paris and New York. Most Chinese people consider this as an attack on them and their country but not on their Government because they consider the Games as their Games. Their indignation has brought them into rallying to the support of their Government. 'Defending the motherland' was the battle cry! At one point the Chinese Government was enjoying as high as 90% support from its citizen! Never in the few thousand years of history had a government enjoy such a overwhelming support from its people! The sad thing was that most foreign media intrepret it as the rising of Chinese nationalism, which I strongly disagree. It is more like patriotism rising to the defence of their motherland. Just before the earth quake in Sichuan, I have written to several media organizations including the CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, CBC and the G&M. I feel that these organizations are partly responsible for the rise of this sentiment in China. The scary thing is that they continue to call it 'nationalism', some of them even call it narrow 'minded nationalism', a phrse use by some oversea chinese descendants too. Since it is an inclusive movement, it is not an exclusive nationalism. Rightly or wrongly, the Chinese people, not their Government, perceive them to be unfairly under attack they feel that they have to rally behind their Governmnet. I have discussed this point with my colleagues at the academies and there is consensus in what I said.

David Brooks, a columnist from NYT parachutted into China to cover the China beat, recently wrote a controversial article which could highlight the overly simplistic, generalized view of the Chinese people common among the westerners:

You can create a global continuum with the most individualistic societies - like the United States or Britain - on one end, and the most collectivist societies - like China or Japan - on the other.

The individualistic countries tend to put rights and privacy first. People in these societies tend to overvalue their own skills and overestimate their own importance to any group effort. People in collective societies tend to value harmony and duty. They tend to underestimate their own skills and are more self-effacing when describing their contributions to group efforts.

....

But what happens if collectivist societies snap out of their economic stagnation? What happens if collectivist societies, especially those in Asia, rise economically and come to rival the West? A new sort of global conversation develops.

The opening ceremony in Beijing was a statement in that conversation. It was part of China’s assertion that development doesn’t come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones.

The ceremony drew from China’s long history, but surely the most striking features were the images of thousands of Chinese moving as one - drumming as one, dancing as one, sprinting on precise formations without ever stumbling or colliding. We’ve seen displays of mass conformity before, but this was collectivism of the present - a high-tech vision of the harmonious society performed in the context of China’s miraculous growth.

Brooks' article quickly attracted huge debate on the internet last week. One is from the real China expert John Pomfret (who have lived in China for decades) from Washington Post:

I wonder if Brooks has ever seen American marching bands, or line dancing, or visited a high school where the coolest kids are always part of a group - say, the football or basketball teams. I would argue that in many way Americans bow more to the group than the Chinese, which explains why the Chinese party-state has been so intent on forcing comformity.

Even more, I wonder if Brooks has ever driven in China (look out for grandma!), or sharpened his elbows in the scrum that forms each time you try to get off an airplane, or tried to get Chinese co-workers to band together. Let's just say in the decade that I've lived in China (over the course of 30 years), I haven't seen or heard much collectivist impulse except when it was rammed down the throats of ordinary Chinese.

And as to Brooks' point about China's rise being attributed somehow to collectivist impulses. Wait a second. The most dynamic sector of China's economy is the private one. It's a nation of entrepreneurs. It's a culture of entrepreneurs. Look at Hong Kong, or Sydney, or Main Street Flushing and now Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu. That's Chinese and it's "individualist" up the wazoo.

Other tough criticism such as:

Peking Duck: But Brooks seems to have literally no insight into what he’s writing about nor does he seem to have done any basic research. This piece has a”gee whiz” tone to it that I’d expect to read in a blog by someone visiting China for the first time, but not in a NYT column. At least he acknowledges that he’s completely ignorant.

James Fallows: This is the kind of thing you can say only if you have not the slightest inkling of how completely different a billion-plus people can be from one another. Beijingers from Shanghainese, Guangdong entrepreneurs from farmers in Sichuan, Tibetans from Taiwanese, people who remember the Cultural Revolution from those who don't, people who remember the famines of the Great Leap Forward from people who've always had enough. The guy across the street from his brother. His daughter from his wife. People hanging on in big state enterprises from those starting small firms. People who stayed in the villages from those who came to the city for jobs. Christians from Buddhists. Hu Jintao from Jiang Zemin, Olympic weightlifters from Olympic tennis players, Yao Ming from Liu Xiang, Wen Jiabao from Edison Chen -- and while we're at it, Filipinos from Koreans, Japanese from Chinese, Malaysian Chinese from Malaysian Malays. Lee Kuan Yew from Kim Jong Il. People from Jakarta from people in Seoul. Hey, they're all "Asians".

Language Log: As for David Brooks, he wants to use this stuff as the scientific foundation for the hypothesis that western societies are fundamentally and essentially individualist while Asian societies are fundamentally and essentially collectivist. That might be true, but it's a long and winding road to that conclusion from the complex and equivocal results of various experiments on how people group various triples of words and pictures, or describe undersea scenes. And we should be wary of following David Brooks too far down that road, given that he can't be bothered to keep straight who did which experiments, or whether the subjects were Chinese or Japanese, or whether it was the Americans or the Asians who more often mentioned the focal fish, or essentially any of the evocative details that he loves to use to bring his ideas to life for his readers.

Finally, a Canadian who understands...

2008-08-18T12:47:00.004-07:00

I particularly admire Chretien for having the gut to point out that "We are at the bottom of the ladder in terms of having any influence with China."

I always have a problem with those who believe Canada is influential in international affairs. We might want to, but please get real and don't overblow our ego. (remember how ridiculous and naive we behaved when Harper sent a representative to North Korea -- among his first international relation efforts as a rookie PM in office for only a month or two -- to try mitigating a solution that the world's most powerful countries haven't been able to do in decades? Harper et al never disclose the outcome of that mission but we can all guess.)

And I think Chretien made a very good point here: "You want me to the tell the president of a country of 1.3 billion people you should do this and do that, but I don't dare to say what to do to the premier of Saskatchewan? You have to put things in perspective."

G&M — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has short-sightedly risked relations with China by failing to attend the Olympic games and going overboard in honouring Tibet's Dalai Lama, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said Monday.

Speaking to a Canadian Bar Association gathering, Mr. Chrétien said the missteps are indicative of a government that naively fails to understand that the Chinese government has made enormous strides in recent years – and that China has a long "collective memory" when it comes to international slights.

Canadian trade missions that once attracted thousands of people have been reduced to crowds of three hundred – most of them Canadians, Mr. Chrétien told a CBA breakfast meeting.

"But the last meeting I went to, there was 300 people – and most of them were Canadian," he said. "You know, they have a collective memory there that is very important."

Mr. Chrétien said that Canada has to keep in mind that it is too small a global player to hector the Chinese or try to hurt them with boycotts.

"We have to live with reality," he said. "It's 1.3-billion people, and I'm telling you that they are moving fast. You think that Canada is very important in the world? I remember when I was going to China ... the press saying: ' Mr. Chrétien, you have to tell the president of China to do this and do that.'

"Oh really?" Mr. Chrétien continued. "You want me to the tell the president of a country of 1.3 billion people you should do this and do that, but I don't dare to say what to do to the premier of Saskatchewan? You have to put things in perspective."

Speaking to reporters afterward Mr. Chrétien continued his fusillade: "We are at the bottom of the ladder in terms of having any influence with China," he said. "Ask any businessman who has been to China, and he will tell you the same thing."

Mr. Chrétien said that were he still prime minister, he "would not have hesitated for a second" to attend an Olympic games that obviously mean so much to Chinese national pride.

He also took issue with a CBA lawyer who asked him about whether China is likely to "remain resistant to any change" on its human rights record in the wake of the Olympic games.

"To make a broad statement is easy," he said. "Of course, Tibet is a problem. But Tibet has been a province for them for a long, long time. To make the Dalai Lama an honourary citizen of Canada was not a compliment to China."

The Dalai Lama may be a well-received religious icon in Canada, he said, "but for them, the Dalai Lama is not a religious leader...

"I have to tell you that when you say resistant to change, you should have been with me in 1994 when [I] visited China. Go to China today and you'll see there has been a hell of a lot of change," Mr. Chrétien said. "They have improved."

He specifically defended his own record as prime minister, saying that he made 14 trips to China and was "the first Western leader to make a speech about human rights in public in China – at the University of Beijing. Some people who say I never mentioned human rights – they are completely wrong."

But China is not Canada, he said: "You have to engage them. You have to live with the reality they have. If you gave the freedom of movement we give in Canada today, there would be 20 million people arriving in Shanghai within a year. How do you deal with 20 million refugees coming into one city? It's a very realistic problem."

"There is always consequences in what you do," Mr. Chrétien added. "If you think that attacking them would be positive, what do you gain? It is the second biggest economy in the world – and in 50 years, it will be the biggest economy. Suddenly, you break the bridge. It would be so easy to be there (at the Olympics)."

Negative media attention in reverse

2008-08-18T12:17:00.003-07:00

Ha ha. Now it's our turn to taste the bitterness of foreign media having too much interest in our "dark sides". Some of us who might not see why the Chinese have been upset about western media's attention on China's negativities, now it's a chance to learn.

"No one is suggesting this is something you can sweep under the carpet," Campbell said. "In fact, the only people I've ever heard that from, frankly, are people in the media."

CBC - B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is downplaying reports of a rise in foreign interest in Vancouver's social problems.

During a visit to the Olympic Games in Beijing last week, Campbell faced questions from reporters about problems the province might face during the 2010 Games, including the possibility of road-closing protests over homelessness and poverty in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

In a brief interview with CBC News on Sunday, Campbell said he wasn't surprised he was questioned about those problems but, he added, "I think the story was blown way out of proportion. I had one question about that."

Campbell said Sunday the province is doing all it can to find housing for the homeless and is making real progress on the issue.

"We're trying to deal with these individuals one on one," the premier said. "We're trying to provide them with personalized support.

"The expansion of the outreach services we've had has been very effective — about 65 to 70 per cent of the people we've dealt with one on one are still in housing a year later."

Come 2010, he said, the world will see the results.

"No one is suggesting this is something you can sweep under the carpet," Campbell said. "In fact, the only people I've ever heard that from, frankly, are people in the media."

It's 'dysfunctional' to Harper because.....

2008-08-18T11:33:00.006-07:00

It seems Harper's real beef is with the problems his government has faced on a set of unique committees chaired by opposition MPs.

Harper was also infuriated when, on two of the remaining 21 standing committees, the opposition attempted to displace routine legislative agendas with ethical controversies.

For a authoritarian leader like this one, I can't imagine what this country would become if he is given a majority. While my anger over his orders to Conservative members to ignore parliamentary summons and not to testify against the party's election financing scheme is still strong, I'm shocked to hear he is the one who cries being victimized. Is this the "strong government", as advertised by Harper et al, that Canadians want?

One friend said he would leave Canada if the Tories wins a majority (pretty much like the phenomenon of "Bush refugees" a few years back). Now I can see a point in him.

Legislative record contradicts Harper claim of parliamentary dysfunction

CP - For a place that Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims is on the brink of anarchy, Parliament has been a busy little beehive since the current session began a year ago this fall.

Notwithstanding some periodic theatrics over alleged Conservative ethical lapses, MPs from all four parties have often put partisanship aside to produce results when required.

By June, no fewer than 29 bills had received royal assent and become law since the session started in October.

And despite the fireworks at three politically charged committees, two dozen others have been quietly labouring away for months on a range of bills and hot topics, from the seal harvest to climate change.

In the final week alone before the summer recess, MPs tabled nine committee reports, sped through a series of last-minute votes, approved $335,000 worth of finance committee travel and unanimously rushed through a bill reforming military court martials.

Nevertheless, the prime minister labelled Parliament "dysfunctional" last week, maintained the committee system was "in chaos" and warned he would "have to make a judgment in the next little while" on whether it's worth going on.

The remarks were widely seen as a signal a fall election may be in the offing. But opposition critics say legislative gridlock can't be used as an excuse for an autumn campaign.

"I don't accept that Parliament is dysfunctional at all," says NDP MP Pat Martin.

"Most committees are functioning well, and the government is advancing its agenda, subject to some of the compromises you'd expect in a minority Parliament."

It seems Harper's real beef is with the problems his government has faced on a set of unique committees chaired by opposition MPs.

Harper was also infuriated when, on two of the remaining 21 standing committees, the opposition attempted to displace routine legislative agendas with ethical controversies.

Those confrontations have consumed only a small fraction of parliamentary business, but they've eaten up most of the headlines from Ottawa.

It began soon after Parliament resumed last October.

The opposition majority on a Commons rules panel - the procedure and House affairs committee - attempted to mount an inquiry into allegations of rule-breaking in $1.3 million worth of Conservative election ads.

The committee quickly ground to a halt, tempers rose and Tory MPs countered with the unprecedented spectacle of a government filibuster.

Early last March, the opposition voted out Conservative chair Gary Goodyear, using its majority to elect a new government chair, Joe Preston, over his own objections.

Preston unwillingly took the gavel, banged it down and adjourned the meeting. He refused to call another one and soon resigned. The government refused to nominate any chair other than Goodyear, the opposition wouldn't accept him, and the committee hasn't met since then.

A similar standoff developed in the justice committee, where the opposition insisted on holding an inquiry into allegations that Conservatives offered the late independent MP Chuck Cadman financial inducements to help defeat the Liberal minority government in 2005.

The confrontation began in March and, like the deadlock in the House affairs committee, disabled the justice panel until the June adjournment.

Tory chair Art Hanger's solution was a simple one. He left the chair any time the Liberals tried to press a motion on the Cadman affair.

In the government operations committee, also chaired by the opposition, MPs held a brief inquiry into allegations that one of Harper's aides had intervened in a contract dispute between a Montreal firm and the Public Works Department. The committee also grilled Environment Minister John Baird over allegations he interfered in a City of Ottawa election by withholding federal aid for a light-rail project.

Shortly before the Commons broke for the summer, the opposition was attempting to steer the panel toward another controversy - the disclosure that former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier had left classified NATO briefing documents at a girlfriend's Montreal home.

With that inquiry facing the Tories in September, and the ethics committee set to resume its own inquiry into Conservative election advertising, the motives behind Harper's sweeping statement about parliamentary paralysis may be understandable.

In the meantime, though, MPs on the finance committee are set to conduct hearings in the Prairie provinces and B.C. for a fourth Conservative budget.

And government and opposition MPs are planning to board the same plane to Belgium when they resume an inquiry into the seal harvest's fate.

It will be business as usual, including the fireworks.

Canadians impressed with China’s organization of the Games: poll

2008-08-17T13:06:00.002-07:00

Angus Reid release - Many adults in Canada hold positive views on the way China has handled the Beijing 2008 Olympics, but few believe the summer games will lead to democratic change in the long term, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.

KEY FINDINGS

54% are interested in the Beijing Olympic Games
64% say the organization of the games in China has been good
63% say their image of China has remained the same

In the online survey of a representative national sample, 64% of respondents say the organization of the Olympics by China has been good (25% very good, 39% moderately good), while just 12% deem it bad.

Almost two-in-five university graduates (37%) give China a "very good" rating after the opening ceremony and the first few days of competition.

Canadians were asked if their image of China has changed since the Olympics began. Roughly one-in-seven (14%) report and improvement, while one-in-five (19%) say their views have actually worsened.

A majority of respondents (63%) did not experience a shift in their views on China. Albertans are particularly critical, with more than one-in-four (27%) claiming that their image of China is now worse than before the start of the games.

After Beijing was chosen as the host city, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said the games were awarded to a country "that will change, that is changing." Canadians are particularly doubtful of this notion. Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) think that the organization of the Olympic Games by China will not alter the democratic situation in the country. Residents of Manitoba and Saskatchewan (78%) and Canadians over the age of 55 (75%) are the most skeptical.

In all, 53% of Canadians say they are very or moderately interested in the Beijing Olympic Games, while 31% report being not too interested, and 17% are not interested at all.

From August 14 to August 15, 2008 Angus Reid Strategies conducted an online survey among a randomly selected, representative sample of 1,004 adult Canadians. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is +/- 3.1 %, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

7 medals in 2 days: Go Go Canada!

2008-08-17T02:52:00.002-07:00

Gold: Carol Huynh, 27, of BC; 48 kg women's wrestling

Bronze: Tonya Verbeek, 31, of Ontario; 55 kg women's wrestling

Silver: Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder; of BC; men's pair sculls

Bronze: Ryan Cochrane, 19, of BC; 1,500-metre freestyle

Bronze: Melanie Kok and Tracy Cameron; women's lightweight double sculls

Bronze: Iain Brambell, Jon Beare, Mike Lewis and Liam Parsons; lightweight men's four

Gold: Ben Rutledge of Cranbrook, B.C., Kevin Light of Sidney, B.C., Malcolm Howard of Victoria, Andrew Byrnes of Toronto, Jake Wetzel of Saskatoon, Dominic Seiterle of Victoria, Adam Kreek of London, Ont., and Kyle Hamilton of Richmond, B.C; men’s eight rowing

Another media fabrication: this time, the crooked teeth fiasco

2008-08-16T23:56:00.006-07:00

The famous ESWN blog has done some excellent research into how the media have been creating -- literally -- the "uneven/crooked teeth girl" hype.

ESWN checked over many primary sources and found no mention of the girl who sang "Ode to the Motherland" was replaced by Lin Miaoke because of her "uneven/crooked teeth/chubby face". The term was completely fabricated by the western media when they reported on the story. Then, the "crooked teetch/chubby face" argument quickly becomes the "official" reason the world believes was behind Yang failing to perform.

I have to admit that before I opined in an earlier post that I was ashamed by the lipsynching thing, I didn't check out the original interview of musical director Chen Qigang. I "naturally" believed in what the media were telling me that Yang was sacrificed because of her less-than-perfect look. My apology for having made strong opinions without double checking out the fact.

Anyway, hats off to ESWN for exposing -- again -- the ugliness of the western media.

Please read the full investigation on ESWN blog. Here's just a small part of the blogger's good work.

(transcript in Chinese via China News Digest)

(translated into English by DJ at Fool's Mountain)

Chen Qigang: The director requested first and foremost adorable kids, and we identified about 10 children accordingly. We then listened to the singing of those kids, and not all of them had good enough voice to perform. The request from the director was that, first the appearance must be good, and of those, the one with the best voice and ability to sing should be picked. We went through a few such candidates through the process and they helped our music creation effort tremendously.

The first kid was about 10 years old. She contributed the most towards the preparation stage of this part of the performance. All the early practice runs were based on her recorded singing. But the director felt she was not the best visual for the scene. She was considered somewhat older than envisioned, a bit adolescent that is. So regrettably she was dropped. We then focused on searching through younger kids. The age criteria was to find someone about 7 years old. A number of them were selected, including both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi.

We went to the Central Broadcasting Radio Station to make recordings. It was felt afterward that Lin Miaoke’s voice wasn’t exactly suitable in terms of tone control, range and depth. In the end, we decided that Yang Peiyi should be the one to provide the voice. We thought it was in the national interest to put the one with the best appearance and expression on the stage. Lin Miaoke was a very good choice for this role. But in terms of the music, we all felt that Yang Peiyi had the flawless voice.

Interviewer: So the one appearing in front the camera was Lin Miaoke and the song came from Yang Peiyi?

Chen Qigang: That’s right. It was a last minute, tough decision. We went through multiple practices and reviews. We played Lin Miaoke’s recording during one joint practice. Many reviewers, particularly someone in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee [of the CCP], made comments that it must be changed. We had no choice.

Interviewer: This is the first time for us to hear this story.

Chen Qigang: We have a responsibility to explain this to the Chinese viewers. I think the viewers should be able to understand that, in the national interest, for the perception of the country, it was an extremely important and serious matter to present the flag [in the best possible manner]. We made a decision, which I think was fair to both Lin and Yang. We felt the coupling of a perfect voice with the best appearance produced the most optimal result. From Lin Miaoke’s point of view, she might not even have realized it. We had two recordings from both of them and they didn’t sound very different.

ESWN discovers that, when the English media went on the reporting, this is the results:

(Los Angeles Times) China's $100-million Olympics opening ceremony wowed its global TV audience with a lavish spectacle and pizazz that tried to present a perfect image of China to the world, right down to the perfect teeth of the little girl who took center-stage and sang an ode to the motherland. Except the voice was not hers. It was recorded and belonged to another girl, with better pipes but crooked baby teeth and a chubby face.

(AFP) The show's musical director revealed the real singer, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi who has uneven teeth and a chubby face, was replaced by government order because she did not present the right image of China. ... No newspaper reported on the issue on Wednesday and state broadcasters also avoided the subject. References to the story were blocked or deleted from the Internet.

(AFP) Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday. Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday. But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

(Times Online) The real singer was Yang Peiyi, a seven-year-old deemed not pretty enough to be the face of China’s most watched moment in history. Chubby-cheeked with crooked teeth, she was substituted at the eleventh hour by Communist Party officials desperate to present the best possible image of Chinese youth to a curious world. After watching a rehearsal with Peiyi in the lead role, a senior member of the Politburo told Beijing Olympic organisers that they had an urgent problem that needed fixing. The solution was to front Peiyi’s “perfect” voice with the more acceptable face of Miaoke, who had already appeared in a television advert.

(Telegraph) Now we discover that Lin Miaoke, the little pig-tailed girl in the red dress who "performed" the Chinese anthem so delightfully at the opening ceremony, was miming. The real singer, Yang Peiyi, was dropped at the last minute because of her buck teeth. In a revealing interview, the ceremony's musical designer said the intervention of a member of the ruling politburo was instrumental in making the swap.

(Globe and Mail) The unmasking of the ruse by which China attempted to pass off one girl's beautiful face as belonging to another girl's beautiful voice is also the unmasking of the new China, and the propaganda purposes of the Beijing Olympics. It would not have done to have Lang Peiyi, the seven-year-old singer of China's patriotic song, Ode to the Motherland, be seen by the world or her own country during the opening ceremony of the Games: She has uneven teeth. Those teeth, and her bowl-cut hair, do not suggest wealth or modernity. Her replacement, nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, is a pig-tailed, Asian version of one of the Olsen twins at that age. She is the ideal, the new China.

(National Post) The pinnacle of deceit, however, came when Chen Qigang, the music director of the Opening Ceremony, admitted in an interview with state media that the adorable nine-year-old girl who sang Ode to the Motherland as China's flag was carried into the main stadium was not, in fact, singing. Lin Miaoke was chosen because the girl whose voice was used, Yang Peiyi, had too-crooked teeth and a too-chubby face. As Chen reportedly put it, "we were concerned with the interests of the nation."

Huynh stirs hometown pride

2008-08-16T20:12:00.003-07:00

BTW, I notice that Global TV emphasizes MUCH MORE on the two silver rowing medalists than Huynh in today's 6pm newscast (Huynh's story was aired much later than that of the silver medalists. While I'm proud for the rowers too, I don't understand why any journalists would skip to the silver first, and the country's first gold winner much later.)

CP - Hometown pride swelled in two Canadian communities Saturday, as residents celebrated in the streets after getting word of Canada's first Olympic medals from the Beijing Games.

Wrestler Carol Huynh of Hazelton, B.C. won gold in the 48-kilogram freestyle division Saturday while fellow British Columbians David Calder - from Victoria - and Scott Frandsen - from Kelowna - rowed to a silver in the men's pairs, ending a Canadian drought in the Games.

Also joining Canada's newest Olympians was Beamsville, Ontario wrestler Tonya Verbeek, who won the bronze medal in the 55-kilogram category.

There was a delirious reaction in Huynh's tiny hometown of Hazelton, said Mayor Alice Maitland.

The northern B.C. town erupted in the small hours of Saturday morning when it became clear the child of Vietnamese refugees was going to take a gold medal, Maitland said in a telephone interview.

“We had to restrain the firemen from running around town with the fire trucks ringing the sirens. Everybody's just overjoyed. Nobody deserved it more than she. It's great,” Maitland said.

“I thought from the very first bouts that they had she just came on confidant and did what she had to do.

“Carol is the winner and so then is the whole family and so are we as a community,” she said.

Verbeek's brother Sean, 33, drove through Beamsville after the win early Saturday, honking his horn.

“You're going through town and you're seeing probably 30, 40 people wearing these shirts that has her name and `Beijing 2008' - they're red with the Canada flag,” Sean Verbeek said.

“We had them hanging out the vehicles honking the horn this morning,” he said, adding media interest in the medal win has been intense.

He said the family stayed up through the night to watch the medal bout.

“The whole family's very excited,” he said. “There was a party at my parents' house (Friday) night.”

While he felt badly that his sister did not take the gold, he said she's a positive person and has a good attitude.

“She's been to two Olympics now and she's only ever lost to one person,” he said. “When my mother did talk to her she said: `You know what, I gave it everything I had.”'

Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered his congratulations to the medallists for their “exceptional accomplishments.”

“Canada is delighted to see them standing tall on the podium with the world's best athletes,” Harper said in a statement.

“We are extremely proud of Canada's Olympic team competing in Beijing. Each day, our athletes exhibit dignity, respect, and dedication to their sport and to their country.

“Their commitment to excellence and to achieving the Olympic dream truly makes them great sport ambassadors for Canada.”

Globe and Mail and 'Chinese Canadian diaspora'

2008-08-16T17:22:00.007-07:00

An article in the Globe and Mail (titled "Chinese-Canadian diaspora fostering bond") today that talks about nationalism among overseas Chinese. The following is part of the article (and I believe many Canadian readers will once again question the "loyalty" of Chinese immigrants):

For 10 years Cheuk Kwan, has been showered with praise by fellow Chinese Canadians for his regular appearances on community radio shows, where he is known for speaking out against Chinese oppression.

But last March, after the government cracked down on an uprising in Tibet, Mr. Kwan began to notice a profound shift in the attitude of his listeners. They still lit up his phone lines with fervour, though now it was to inform him that his attacks on the Chinese system had become tantamount to slighting the Chinese people themselves.

Suddenly, Mr. Kwan, who arrived in Toronto in 1976 and soon after helped found the influential Chinese Canadian National Council, was tarred as a traitor, a dissident and a rabble rouser. He was accused of "not being Chinese enough."

"They say don't touch my motherland. Don't you want to see China strong?" he says. "They see criticism of the regime as criticism of the people."

It is a stunning turnaround for Chinese Canadians, who have not traditionally taken a vocal nationalistic position, especially compared with other ethnic communities in Canada.

The Chinese-Canadian diaspora, a vast and diverse population now 1.2 million strong, trickled into this country across several generations and has never been known for its strong attachment to China. It was a nation marked by poverty, chaos, civil war, occupation and communism — hardly the conditions to spark affinity.

But now, as China moves closer to regaining status as a global power, its overseas community has begun fostering a new emotional bond with its homeland. The Olympic Games, in particular, have given Chinese Canadians a focal point, one that has many simultaneously spilling over with pride at China's success and frustration with the West's lingering focus on perceived Chinese failings.

"The Olympics by itself is an embodiment of a sort of Chinese coming-out party," said Mr. Kwan, who said excitement has been mounting throughout the diaspora since China was awarded the Games in 2001.

"The Chinese are looking at the Olympic Games as the kind of washing off of all humiliation and bad things that China used to represent," he said. "Chinese Canadians still hold dear the fact that they are Chinese. When China becomes a super nation, they feel proud. They feel that their status in society is tied directly to how China is being thought of on the world stage."

Mr. Kwan, who admits to a new-found sense of pride himself, said he worries the sentiments being expressed will be mistaken for "ugly Chinese nationalism" instead of shows of dignity and cultural pride.

The community's response to the negative portrayals has been to counter them with an unprecedented show of pro-China demonstrations which have unfolded across the country in ethnic media, online chat forums and most notably, with a protest in Ottawa in April, during which thousands of flag-bearing Chinese Canadians marched on Parliament Hill to rally support for their homeland. Companion protests were held across the country in other major cities, including Montreal and Toronto. Some who attended the Saturday protest in Ottawa — which received little coverage in English language media, including this paper — put numbers of attendees at close to 10,000.

I got interviewed by the Globe on this same topic about 10 days ago (before the opening of the Olympics) but my points didn't get published. I'm attaching my answers here (so that my time to write them out isn't wasted :)) for CIV readers.

Q: How close are the ties between Chinese-Canadians and China? Does it differ in terms of what year individuals moved to Canada? Is it generational?

I think the ties between Chinese Canadians and China (as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong) have always been close – familial, cultural and economical. The time of arrival would have little to affect such ties (no matter what you need to fly to and fro to visit your folks, right? Just like me :)) On the economic side, I do believe the large number of PRC immigrants coming to Canada over the last decade helps promote trans-Pacific trades between China and Canada in a big way. We can see more chambers of commerce being set up by PRC immigrants. One interesting observation is that some local born Chinese (or “bananas”) who traditionally have focused their work in North America, have found new opportunities to do business with China through newly made Chinese immigrant friends. However, I don’t know how widespread this trend is… just happen to know a few friends who now fly more frequently to China for business purposes.

Q: Would you say there is a rise in Chinese nationalism in Chinese-Canadian communities or is it simply a case of the mainstream media paying more attention to how Chinese people feel about their heritage and country? Do Chinese-Canadians feel they've been badly represented in the media in some instances?

Q: What form does this nationalism take, as far as you can see? How do people express it? What key events, good and bad, are spurring this?

To answer these questions, I reached out to talk to a few Chinese Canadian friends last night and sought their insight. Our common feeling is that we don’t feel there’s a surge in nationalism in the Chinese Canadian community. Other than a few big incidents this year – such as the Tibet riot and the unfair media reporting of the riot; and the Sichuan earthquake – that Chinese Canadians have reacted with great emotions, we really don’t feel a surge in Chinese nationalism or pride in our daily life. Most of the time, people see themselves as immigrants fighting really hard to adapt to a new country and Chinese nationalism is not on the top of the list of things they are concerned of daily.

The relatively strong emotions expressed during the Tibet riot and the Olympic torch run were really more against the western media bias than the incidents themselves. During then, we had a collective feeling that no one in the West wanted to see us as a friendly, peaceful people who were able to think and behave independently from communist China. While the western media portrayed the Tibetans as peace lovers, the innocent Han Chinese being targeted in an obvious race-based riot got little or no sympathy in western media coverage. It’s a kind of feeling that the entire ethnicity has been purposely demeaned and insulted by the west for too long that emotions finally exploded. That’s why the situation united Chinese all over the world.

However, when later the nationalistic feelings in China spilled all over, many of us in Canada could right away sense the danger of excessive nationalism and became more cautious and voices to “cool it down” became the majority.

A few friends I talked to don’t particularly feel “pride” for China hosting the Games. “It’s just a game,” one told me.

“It’s a waste of time and money. China should focus to better people’s lives than to use so much resources on face-painting event like the Games,” said another.

On the contrary, many people I talked to (including myself) think Beijing is too nervous about security that normal lives of the residents are being sacrificed. (e.g. the Beijing city government has asked its residents to “stay home as much as possible during the Games” so that “foreign guests could have more space to walk and enjoy the city” – something like that)

For me, I still remember how elated I was when I heard Jacques Rogge said: “Vancouver!” But when the Beijing bid was announced – and I was in Hong Kong – I didn't have the same feelings… but I could hear cheers on the streets.

In a recent discussion on a popular online forum frequented by PRC immigrants in Vancouver, I was a little surprised to see a thread: “How many medals do you think our country will get in the Beijing Games?” In there, “our country” is Canada, not China. Both the thread creator and the followers seem to have no problem recognize this as no one questioned “which country?”

Q: Does the Chinese government influence how people in Canada feel? Or is it a question of solidarity with ordinary Chinese citizens? How do immigrants feel about this?

No offense, but this question reflects the most common stereotype the west have on us as a people. I have been asked many times before by various western reporters about how much the Chinese embassy is able to influence us blah blah blah… The answer, really, is NOTHING. As I explained above, it’s more a reaction to being treated unfairly as a group.

Canada nets first gold medal!

2008-08-16T02:01:00.006-07:00

(caption: Canada's Carol Huynh from Hazelton, B.C. celebrates her gold medal victory over Chiharu Icho from Japan in the women's freestyle 48kg wrestling final at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Saturday, August 16, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

Yes!!!! Canada gets its first GOLD medal!!!!!!

And it's from a Canadian of Chinese descent!!!!! From BC!!!!!

I'm sooooooo happy tonight.... can't sleep and keep cheering for Canadian rowing teams and Carol Huynh (her last name is 黃 in Chinese)

Go Go Canada, Jianada Jia You!!!

So proud of you Canada! My tears fell down like crazy when our national anthem was played and our flag raised first time in the Beijing Olympics... For those who have been questioning about the loyalty of Chinese Canadians, I can assure that at least mine is with Canada! Not a thinest doubt about that.

More background about Carol Huynh from the Vancouver Sun:

Carol Huynh of Hazelton, B.C., wrestling in front of parents for the first time since she competed in high school a decade ago, has advanced to the gold medal match in the women's 48 kg class at the 2008 Olympics.

"Wow, I feel absolutely amazing and really excited," said Hunyh. "This has been my goal for the longest time now. It's really great to be realizing it. Just one more step."

Huynh, 27, said it felt "really special" to know she was going to get the first medal for a Canadian team that was starting to feel the pressure after being shut out in the pool and everywhere else through the first week.

"I know that we've got more coming, but it's nice to be the first one."

Huynh's parents - her dad is a native of China, her mom a native of Vietnam - came to Canada nearly 30 years ago, sponsored as refugees by the United Church. They were placed in Hazelton, a primarily native community in west central B.C. where Huynh was born and grew up.

She started wrestling in high school, encouraged by an older sister. She later went to SFU, where she wrestled collegiately and continued training on the Burnaby Mountain campus before moving to Calgary a year ago.

Hunyh said it was amazing to look up and see her parents, her husband and three of her siblings. "It was kind of weird [to see her parents], but really nice to see them waving out in the crowd."

Too tough on China?

2008-08-15T15:49:00.003-07:00

A rare article reflecting on the attitude of the west upon China by a columnist at Washington Post (can't help to cross post the entire article here. please note that the copyright is that of the author's, not CIV).

Should We Give China a Break?

From the lip-syncing imbroglio, to reports on tween gymnasts and Han Chinese kids posing as ethnic minorities, to coverage that's focused on human rights, pollution and China's challenge to West, one could argue that Beijing is getting kicked in the teeth on a daily basis by the Western press.

Are we being too tough?

Some people, like Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia, think it's a legitimate question to ask. Others in the fraternity of journalists say "we're just doing our job." A few more think we're pathetic and should be tougher on the Red Chinese.

My view of it, as usual, is a muddle. On the factual stuff, what's happening in and around the Games, I say let 'em have it. I've spent years reporting in China, wrote lots of tough stories, got tossed out after the June 4th crackdown in 1989, had my share of run-ins with the local authorities, and saw the thuggishness of the one-party state up close and personal. I have no problem with tough pieces.

But as to the big-think on the meaning of the Beijing Olympics, my basic take is this: the Games are to the punditocracy what a hanging curveball is to an aging home-run hitter. Slamming China is the simplest way out and if you whiff, well, at least that's better than trying to beat out a grounder. Context, nuance, background, depth of reporting, all that kind of stuff really messes up the prevailing narrative which is this - China is a systemic challenge to our way of life and these Olympics prove it.

Let's take two recent pieces from pundits. To be fair, I chose a piece from the New York Times and from the Post.

The Times piece is an Aug. 11 column by David Brooks -- Harmony and the Dream -- in which he says that the world can be divided up into two types of societies - individualist and collectivist. America is individualist and China is collectivist. Brooks then goes on to say that individualist countries tend to put rights and privacy first while "people in collective societies tend to value harmony and duty." So with that Brooks has handily explained why China is a one-party state and we're a democracy. It really is that simple. I guess.

Then Brooks goes on: The Olympics, and particularly the opening ceremony, is a sign of the rise of a collectivist society "to rival the West."

"It was part of China's assertion that development doesn't come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones," Brooks states. He then broadens this theory to say: "If Asia's success reopens the debate between individualism and collectivism (which seemed closed after the cold war), then it's unlikely that the forces of individualism will sweep the field or even gain an edge." Takeaway? China is a challenge. Not just because it's big and bad but because they think different over there and the Olympic Ceremony proves it.

I wonder if Brooks has ever seen American marching bands, or line dancing, or visited a high school where the coolest kids are always part of a group - say, the football or basketball teams. I would argue that in many way Americans bow more to the group than the Chinese, which explains why the Chinese party-state has been so intent on forcing comformity.

Even more, I wonder if Brooks has ever driven in China (look out for grandma!), or sharpened his elbows in the scrum that forms each time you try to get off an airplane, or tried to get Chinese co-workers to band together. Let's just say in the decade that I've lived in China (over the course of 30 years), I haven't seen or heard much collectivist impulse except when it was rammed down the throats of ordinary Chinese.

And as to Brooks' point about China's rise being attributed somehow to collectivist impulses. Wait a second. The most dynamic sector of China's economy is the private one. It's a nation of entrepreneurs. It's a culture of entrepreneurs. Look at Hong Kong, or Sydney, or Main Street Flushing and now Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu. That's Chinese and it's "individualist" up the wazoo.

Harold Meyerson's piece Aug. 13 - The Drums of Change - got my goat for a different reason. First, comparing the Russian attack on Georgia with the Chinese opening ceremony he opined that it's the Chinese we really have to fear. A 4-hour extravaganza over an invasion. Hmmm.

Meyerson noted that during the parade of athletes China's flag bearer, Yao Ming, was accompanied by a 9-year-old boy who dug two classmates out of the rubble of the Sichuan earthquake. When asked by NBC why he did it, the boy said "he was a hall monitor and that it was his job to take care of his schoolmates," Meyerson wrote, adding "that answer may tell us more than we want to know."

The boy "was a responsible little part of a well-ordered hierarchy," said Meyerson.From that he concludes that the answer "works brilliantly as an advertisement for an authoritarian power bent on convincing the world that its social and political model is as benign as any democracy's."

What am I missing here? How is a sense of responsibility, instilled in any leader, no matter how small, in any society (ever hear of a class president?), taken as a sign of totalitarian brainwashing or a propaganda campaign? Don't we hear this kind of sentiment in the voices of Americans who go down into mines or back into fires to save their comrades? "I'm the fire chief, I couldn't leave my men behind." And so what if it's a 9-year-old? Bully for him. If anything, China's system discourages the type of initiative evidenced by pint-sized hero. Maybe that's the reason he was marching next to Yao.

Meyerson ends his piece with the following line: "A nation that can assemble 2,000 perfectly synchronized drummers has clearly staked its claim as the world's assembly line." That's definitely food for thought.

I guess.

Why can't China's future be left to the Chinese -- not the west?

2008-08-15T11:57:00.005-07:00

In a supposedly satiring article posted on CanWest sites today, I found a few lines that I'd like to highlight to our western friends. They were made by Wang Wei, chief spokesman for the Beijing Games and secretary general of the Beijing 2008 bid committee.

His message was that for the last 30 years, China has been making reforms step by step, but it was naive to think that one of the world's oldest civilizations, with a history of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia, could or would make all the remaining changes in the three-week period of the Olympics.

"I was secretary-general of the bidding committee," said Wang. "I was confronted with many questions about the opening up and the reform of China and I did say that the Olympic Games coming to China would help China open up and reform better. And the effects show.

"After 30 years of reform, China is developing quickly. People enjoy more freedom and they have a lot to say and the welfare of people has improved a lot."

He said there are, of course, exceptions. Not everyone is doing better and some people have been disenfranchised. But it's important to handle those grievances through the legal process because the country can't be allowed to fall into "chaos."

It's irritating, he suggested, that some journalists have come only to "peek and be critical, to dig into details and find fault with that."

But finding flaws, he said, doesn't mean that China is not trying to fulfil its promises.

"If you want to come over here and you want to be critical, it's all right. But you have to believe the majority of the people, otherwise I think you are quite misled."

This is so true. Why is the west so obsessed with its anything-is-bad-about-China attitude? Yes, China has problems: be they human rights, poverty, freedom blah blah blah. But China is soooooooo huge and issues are naturally diverse. The problem of Tibet, for example, is of concern to only 1% (if not less) of the population. What about the rest 99%, or even just 70%? Ask any Chinese who are 30ish, ask them how they feel about their lives, ask them if they want drastic changes to the communist government as wished by the west (don't tell me crap such as 'oh those Chinese are brainwashed by government propaganda blah blah blah... the Chinese people isn't as dumb as the west wishes to believe). Ask average Beijingers, that although they don't like their lives being disturbed during the Games, do they support what is being staged in the capital? Why can't the future of China be left to the hands of the Chinese people, and not by the west who poorly understands what really the majority of the Chinese want?

The west should stop using its rhetoric of democracy and liberty and force it upon other countries.. I wanna borrow a few lines by Paul Well of the Macleans when he writes about the Georgian/Russian conflict:

What’s killing Georgia today — besides hordes of Russian soldiers and irregulars — is Western rhetoric about democracy and liberty, and the reluctance or inability of assorted peddlers of that rhetoric to check it, now and then, against reality.

Spanish team's 'affectionate' slit eyed gestures

2008-08-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

Just spotted this one... wonder if some people (such as Jose Calderon) consider this another example of the Chinese looking for issues of negativity so they can be upset about something? (but honestly, I believe it's them being extremely stupid and insensitive more than being racist on purpose. but no matter what, if the ad has offended people, regardless whether they meant it or not, they should make it up.)

Chinese Canadians call for apology from Spanish Olympic basketball team

CCNC release - The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) today called on the members of the Spanish Olympic Basketball teams to apologize for the offensive team photo that has been circulated around the globe. In it, members of the Spanish Olympic men's and women's basketball teams are pictured making a slit-eyed gesture.

"This photo is deeply offensive and racist - it's surprising that members of an Olympic team preparing for the Games in Beijing of all places would show such poor judgement," Victor Wong, CCNC Executive Director said today. "The Spanish Olympic Basketball teams owe a full and unconditional apology to their hosts, to their fellow Spanish citizens and to the people that they have offended and disappointed with this photo."

CCNC also urges the NBA teams where some of these players are based including the Toronto Raptors to condemn this photo. "Professional sports teams spend an enormous effort working with children and communities to bridge understanding and promote harmony through sport and our teachers educate children about the serious impact of racism, taunts and bullying gestures even if it is not intended," Victor Wong added.

Jose Calderon of Toronto Raptors think "it's something appropriate", AFP reports:

A star member of Spain's Beijing Olympic basketball team, Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon, defended Tuesday a controversial advertisement where the entire squad posed while making slit-eyed gestures, saying it was an "affectionate gesture."

"What happened was that during a photo session where the Spanish national team was unveiled, one of our sponsors asked as to pose with a 'wink' to our participation in Beijing and we made an oriental expression with our eyes," he wrote on his Internet site.

"It seemed to us to be something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture. However some European media did not see it as such," he added.

"I want to express that we have great respect for the Orient and its people, some of my best friends in Toronto are of Chinese origin."

Furlong will disclose in advance if our Olympic show does lipsynching

2008-08-13T15:10:00.004-07:00

When asked in Beijing if VANOC could promise no lip-synching for our 2010 Winter Games, this was what John Furlong and Gordon Campbell said, according to the Vancouver Sun:

Furlong and Campbell declined to criticize the Beijing hosts. Asked if Vanoc would do the same thing in Vancouver, Furlong was evasive.

"I don't think at this point it is necessarily a question I can answer right now," he said. "We haven't even started on that part of the show."

But Campbell jumped up and said jokingly: "No lip-synching allowed, I'll tell you right now."

After the meeting, Furlong finally buckled when asked by a reporter if he would disclose such trickery in advance, rather than waiting for three days, as the Chinese did.

"The answer to that is I would be inclined to be quite transparent about it," he said.

This is exactly what I meant in my previous post, that the audience would feel better if they were told right up front.

Harper seals human rights report

2008-08-13T11:22:00.004-07:00

This is shocking.... I can't imagine how Harper could still brag about his government being a fighter for democracy and human rights. He'll be more of a dictator if he's given full power i.e. a majority.

(thanks chinktalk for the link)

Critic slams Harper gov't on human rights reports

The Conservative government has decided to treat parts of ambassadors' reports about human rights in other countries as secret documents, something one critic calls "shocking."

University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday that if this stands, Canada will be the only major nation to do so.

"The Americans publish every single report of every country they study on a website every single year," he said.

"So do the British. And until now, Canada has been somewhere in the middle," Attaran said.

Government officials would prepare human rights reports, and citizens could request them by making access to information requests, he said.

"The Harper government has turned them into secrets, and started censoring bits of them, and now it seems they will disappear altogether," he said.

Attaran said he thinks the motive is to prevent embarrassment to its allies.

For example, a 2007 report on Afghanistan, leaked to the Globe and Mail, "said the Afghan government tortured. Well, that embarrassed the Harper government quite a bit," he said.

The government had released a version of the document that removed much of the most damaging information about Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, a leaked document said Israel and the United States tortured, he said.

"I think what is really going on is (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper does not want our allies to be shown up by our reporting of their problems," Attaran said.

But U.S., United Nations and British reports don't pull punches about human rights abuses, he said.

"Those are exactly the same sorts of things that the Harper government cut out about Afghanistan and now wants to do across the board."

Attaran is a frequent critic of the Harper government on issues like the torture of Afghan detainees.

He has launched a lawsuit against the federal government to get the full Afghan human rights report disclosed. He said he expects his case to be heard by a court this fall.

How much more is fake?

2008-08-12T17:43:00.008-07:00

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Lin Miaoke, a nine-year-old Chinese girl who performed at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on the day before, returns to the Xizhongjie Primary School of Dongcheng District in Beijing on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008. A 7-year-old Chinese girl's face was "not suitable" for the Olympics opening ceremony, so Lin lip-synched "Ode to the Motherland", the latest example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Summer Games. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Zhou Liang)

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Yang Peiyi, the real singer.

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Today, I feel ashamed.

Hong Kong media are reporting that the decision to pull Yang out and replace her with Lin was made at the 11th hour by "a member of the Politburo". After seeing the rehearsal, this Chinese leader think although Yang sings well, her appearance isn't flawless enough. I wonder if that would be Xi Jinping - the appointed heir to the throne who oversees the Olympics?

Unbelievable.

To me, I think Yang Peiyi is cuter than Lin Miaoke. Lin was too pretentious and conscious of her performance. I just found out that Lin is a popular TV ad and MV model. At only 9, she has already starred in 39 TV ads, including those with popular Chinese Olympic stars.

The decision hurt both girls.

Sigh.

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BEIJING - After the first few days of the Beijing Games, some cracks have appeared in China's perfect party - empty seats at the venues, disappointing crowds at the Olympic grounds, ticket scalping, a lack of buzz around the city and even official acknowledgment of trickery during the opening ceremony.

International Olympic Committee officials urged Beijing organizers Tuesday to let more people into the Olympic Green - the centrepiece zone of the games where most of the main venues are located - and find ways to fill up the arenas.

“We've been saying: `You're missing a great opportunity to get more of your people in here to celebrate your games,”' said Kevan Gosper, vice-chairman of the IOC's co-ordination commission for Beijing.

“I would want to stress how important it is for the host city that the venues are seen to be full and everybody has the opportunity to enjoy the festivities.”

Wang Wei, spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee, acknowledged there were not enough people in the green and organizers were encouraging more to come.

Wang said about 40,000 people passed through the area Monday. The IOC suggested the figure should be increased to up to 200,000 daily and that organizers issue more passes to allow visitors into the green, which covers 1,156 hectares in northern Beijing.

“We have taken this up with organizers and the politicians,” IOC marketing commission chairman and executive board member Gerhard Heiberg told The Associated Press.

“They have promised an improvement today and further improvement tomorrow. We hope this is going to take place. We need more people to have a higher atmosphere.”

Among those affected were the Olympics' global sponsors, who are each paying tens of millions of dollars to be associated with the games but have complained that few visitors have been let through to see their pavilions.

“When I went out, there was a small trickle of people walking through,” U.S. IOC member Bob Ctvrtlik said.

“Access is difficult and security is incredibly tight. At some venues it's surprising when there have been sellouts and you see quite a few empty seats.”

“At the stadiums you need warm enthusiastic crowds to help create an atmosphere for athletes to perform at their best.”

The situation seemed to improve throughout the day Tuesday.

“I just went to volleyball and it was absolutely rocking,” Ctvrtlik said after watching the U.S.-Italy and Brazil-Serbia men's games.

“It was filled. It was a great atmosphere.”

Chinese organizers have boasted for months that all 6.8 million tickets had been sold.

Wang admitted some empty seats were being filled by volunteers in yellow shirts serving as official cheerleaders.

“The responsibility lies with the local venue managers,” he said.

“If they find that there are not enough people, or if they find too many empty seats, they will organize some cheerleaders who are volunteers.”

IOC officials said attendance is a regular problem during the first week of the Olympics and that crowds are expected to build up, especially when the track and field competition begins Friday at the 91,000-seat National Stadium.

Wang cited several factors for the empty seats - hot, humid weather and rain; no-shows among ticket-holding Olympic sponsors and officials; fans skipping preliminary-round competitions or not staying for the entire program when events last a full day.

At the same time, there have also been reports of illegal ticket scalping outside venues.

“We will look into this,” Wang said.

“We have been implementing strict measures to prevent the scalping of tickets.”

Meanwhile, it emerged fake fireworks and lip-synching were part of Friday's spectacular opening ceremony - an extravaganza watched by a global television audience that likely surpassed two billion viewers.

Fireworks bursting into the shape of 29 gigantic footprints were shown trudging above the Beijing skyline to the National Stadium near the start of the ceremony. Officials confirmed some of the footage shown to TV viewers around the world and on giant screens inside the stadium featured a computer-generated, three-dimensional image.

“It was confirmed that previously recorded footage was provided to the broadcasters for convenience and theatrical effects - as in many other big events,” Wang said.

“On the day of the ceremony there were actual footprints of fireworks from the south to the north of the city. However, because of the poor visibility of the night, some previously recorded footage may have been used.”

In addition, the tiny, pigtailed nine-year-old girl in the red dress who sang “Ode to the Motherland” was lip-synching. The real voice belonged to a seven-year-old girl who was replaced because she was deemed not cute enough by a member of China's Politburo.

“The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen,” the ceremony's chief music director, Chen Qigang, told Beijing Radio.

China's Communist party has been eager to present a flawless Olympics to the world. The buildup to the games was embroiled in controversy over China's human rights record and air pollution in Beijing.

Since the games started, other outside factors have undercut some of the hoped-for feel-good factor, including Saturday's fatal stabbing at a tourist site of a relative of the U.S. men's volleyball coach and the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia. The fighting undermined the IOC's traditional call for observance of an “Olympic Truce” during the games.