I'm loving this ongoing story about the decision by Chinese officials to have one 9-year-old girl lip sync a patriotic ballad at the opening ceremonies for the Michael Phelps Show, because the actual singer (who is 7) basically wasn't cute enough.
Not only did they fake the singing, apparently they faked the fireworks as well (a bit.)
There's an intriguing cultural gap here; Westerners are all excited that part of the show was "faked" whereas it seems the Chinese don't really even know why this is an issue. There's definitely a reasonable argument that in a show like this everything is "faked", but for some folks there's still an expectation of some kind of underlying genuine basis for the spectacle.
When we were in Vietnam, the guide used the term "original copy" to describe the low-priced, counterfeited copies of international brand products that flood the Asian markets and come primarily from mainland China. So it seems to me that China has managed to create an "original copy opening ceremony." (And, appropriately, "Original Copy Beijing" and "Original Copy Political Consensus" to boot.)
I have to wonder how this connects with the larger "counterfeiting culture" seen coming out of China, one where there doesn't seem to be a lot of respect for other brands and intellectual property. I've always assigned it more to being a result of aggressive commercialism - do whatever you can get away with and make money on - but I'm guessing it may also be a larger cultural disconnect, where there isn't quite the same value placed on the concept of "genuine" so long as the copy is good enough.
Not only did they fake the singing, apparently they faked the fireworks as well (a bit.)
From the NYT: "But to achieve the spectacular, not only did organizers fake the song, but they also have acknowledged that one early sequence of the stunning fireworks shown to television viewers actually included digitally enhanced computer graphics used for 'theatrical effect.'"
There's an intriguing cultural gap here; Westerners are all excited that part of the show was "faked" whereas it seems the Chinese don't really even know why this is an issue. There's definitely a reasonable argument that in a show like this everything is "faked", but for some folks there's still an expectation of some kind of underlying genuine basis for the spectacle.
When we were in Vietnam, the guide used the term "original copy" to describe the low-priced, counterfeited copies of international brand products that flood the Asian markets and come primarily from mainland China. So it seems to me that China has managed to create an "original copy opening ceremony." (And, appropriately, "Original Copy Beijing" and "Original Copy Political Consensus" to boot.)
I have to wonder how this connects with the larger "counterfeiting culture" seen coming out of China, one where there doesn't seem to be a lot of respect for other brands and intellectual property. I've always assigned it more to being a result of aggressive commercialism - do whatever you can get away with and make money on - but I'm guessing it may also be a larger cultural disconnect, where there isn't quite the same value placed on the concept of "genuine" so long as the copy is good enough.
I will point out that the fuss relates to the fact that reality was being distorted ... more like photoshoping a model on the cover of a magazine (which is very American!) - whereas in counterfeiting the goal is to replicate the original as closely as possible. But I agree that a cultural gap is at the heart of this controversy and I still think your original copy panda idea is genius(and Mochi does too as long as you breed a toy category!).
Posted by: mk | 08/13/2008 at 01:25 PM