photo credit: hto2008

The opening ceremony at the 2008 Olympics cost a lot money, about $1 for every man, woman and child in China. It was a phenomenal show except for two clunkers and a gigantic creative blunder.

Clunker One was the digital faking of some overhead shots of the fireworks. Big deal.

Clunker Two was flabbergasting. Somebody thought it would be a good idea to insert an extended sequence about caring lovingly for the environment. On the one hand, yawn. On the other, amazement that minions of the Chinese government would channel schoolchildren to pontificate on the environment while China remains the most egregious polluter in history. Is there a Gold Medal for chutzpah?

Creatively, the show was brilliant, with one exception. At one point, a 9-year old girl named Lin Miaoke sang something called “Ode to the Motherland”. She sounded great and looked lovely. The only problem is that she was lip syncing to a recording of 7-year old Yang Peiyei who had been scheduled to sing live and in person. At a rehearsal a few hours before the show, a high mucky-muck of the Commie politburo decided that little Peiyei wasn’t pretty enough. Her hair is short and she’s somewhat plain and gap-toothed. But the ham-handed bureaucrat wanted pretty, damn it, because “the national interest requires that the girl have good looks.”

The cretin who demanded the change was, in effect, overruling the creative geniuses who’d put the show together from scratch. They knew what they were doing, knew that Peiyei, who’s just a normal little Chinese girl, would have charmed the world. Peiyei deserved the moment. Miaoke, while blameless, didn’t. The boobish thug, a reverse creative genius, forced the change and that put a damper on the whole evening.