Officially ugly

This story is just tragic.

A little girl and her song captivated millions of viewers during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. But what they saw was not what they heard.

Games organizers confirm that Lin Miaoke, who performed "Ode to the Motherland" as China's flag was paraded Friday into Beijing's National Stadium, was not singing at all.

Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.

"The reason was for the national interest," said Chen Qigang, the ceremony's musical director, in a state radio interview. "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. ... Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects."

So this seven year old girl wins a (presumably) national contest to sing on international television - and then it's announced that she can't actually appear because she's too ugly. And it's not just her wee friends saying that in the playground - it's her government, announcing to the world "Yang Peiyi is too much of a munter to appear on television".

What's that going to do to her? For the rest of her life, she'll be The Girl Too Ugly For TV. There are (very rough guess) about 15 million seven-year-old girls in China, but of only one of them can this be said: "The official position of the Government of the People's Republic of China is that she is a complete hound".

I hope she grows up to lead a revolution. It would serve them right.