Friday, August 29, 2008

Women Change World


Senator and the GOP presidential candidate John McCain just announced his running mate, Alaska Governor, 44 years old, mother of 5 and runner up of Miss Alaska pageant Sarah Palin. McCain's underdog campaign will be blessed by women, Secretary Rice for taking off the the Russia-Georgia war, and Governor Palin for making the campaign more dynamic, and women voters who will make selection for next four years. Poor Obama, he should have picked Hilary.

Retrospective thinking, the Obama would not be the history making event, but the McCain's would be.

Palin, what an energetic, magic, well-formed, over-achieved woman with an impeccable resume. Reese Witherspoon in the 1999 movie Election, anyone?

source of Sarah's picture

And the début of Palin in the campaign in Dayton, Ohio, accompanied by four of her five children, and her husband,

Oh..my..God..

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Chinese are Poison Tolerating, Said the Foreign Ministry

In answering Japanese reporters' questions on the recent gyoza poisoning cases in China, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Mr. Qin Gang said Chinese people are more poison tolerating, unlike Japanese people. Mr. Qin said Chinese people could wait on the regular press conference held on August 13, 2008. The story was broken by Japanese news media. This piece of conversation was not appeared in the formal transcript published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

earlier SR coverage

Friday, August 15, 2008

Olympics Miscellaneous

A- The extremists set off bombs all over China, from east to west, south to north. Regardless, the Chinese government asserted that there was no terrorists in China, and all terrorists reported were conducted by persons either blind, limp or having mental problems.

B- The security measures used is unprecedented. It is said that the Olympic torch was protected on higher security level than that of the president Hu Jintao. When the torch relay passed the central China city Zhengzhou. A fake route was published on the local newspaper, while the real relay was conducted in an exclusive area guarded by heavy military forces. All public entertainment has been in a stall. In Olympic cities Beijing, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Qingdao and Shanghai, one can't get from point A to point B before his bag searched 5 times but hundreds of millions of volunteer securities armed with networked ID scanners. No group more than 5 are allowed to meet in public. Roller skating, kiting are strictly forbidden. Even daycares were ordered to be closed indefinitely during the Olympics Period, which officially not ended until late September.

C- Thousands of factories were closed or shut down as the government eagerly monitoring air quality in Beijing, some as far away as 500 miles west. Transportation has been in a halt. In the end, Beijing does not look good in the pictures and live images. Actually, it's by and large due to the foggy weather. Everyone who actually in Beijing find the air quality to be good.

D- Almost every swimming finals ended with a breaking of world record in the National Swimming Stadium 'the Water Cube'. There have been many speculations, from doping to less than standard length. The designer of the water cube suggested that the design probably helps because: 1) the pool is deeper than most current pools; 2) the water temperature has been controlled in an extremely stable temperature, which feels most comfortable; 3) the water quality is unprecedented higher than existing pools, which also makes athletes comfortable; 4) designs to eliminate bouncing waves at both ends of the lane. The bouncing waves are considered a significant distraction to top swimmers; 5) designs to eliminate bouncing waves at both sides of the pool, which has been a disadvantage for swimmers on outer lanes;

E- A commercial sponsor pledged $3 million award for the first golden medal, which probably is the real cause why China lost the doubly insured first medal. The top two player in the women's 10-m air rifle competition are all Chinese. Both performed poorly in the game.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Order Came from the Highest Level

Chen told the Beijing Music Radio that the order to switch girls were from the highest level, a communism politburo member, 3 days before the opening night, after the last formal rehearsal. Comparing this with news report at the time, the 'politburo member' is Mr. Xi Jinping. Son of Mr. Xi Zhongxun, an senior communism official. Mr. Xi Jinping has been set to replace Mr. Hu Jintao to be the next 'core' of the CCP leadership.

It'll be interesting to see on which scale this unnecessarily stupid act may cost Xi's potential to be the next 'core' of China.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Seven Years Old Victim of Faked Olympic Show


This little girl is her parents' proud. Her smile looks like it carries a little bit shy, perhaps it was because of the tooth she had just lost. But that's ok, she is still very cute, very adorable to my eyes. How can a seven year old girl be not cute? Besides, she has a very beautiful voice. A voice that had touched the soft spot of millions at the same moment.

Seven years old first grader Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜) is yet another ordinary Chinese girl, but she sang the "Praise our Motherland" in the opening ceremony of the 2009 Olympic Games held in Beijing on August 8, 2008. A young girl dress in a simple red skirt singing the smooth and beautiful song became an immediate hit and one of the most memorable scene in Olympic history. The act was exceptionally well received in China. In numerous surveys conducted after the ceremony, without any exception, all Chinese people voted this song as the most touching program of the entire 3.5 hours ceremony. Many cried out of joy, love and proud.

While the smog of fireworks effects dispersed, the ugly truth sank in. The little girl in red dress did not sing the song she was pretending singing. The little girl in red dress stole the voice of Yang Peiyi for untold reasons (Now people know that another 5 years old little girl, who 'played' piano together with international mega star Lang Lang was the daughter of a sponsor). This is such a shame of the imposer, such a pity for Yang Peiyi, such a disgust to audiences all over the world.

'Nine-years-old becomes instant star with patriotic song', the official English newspaper China Daily reported, with no mention of the faked acting. Zhang Yimou, the acclaimed director said the song 'sung' by the red dressed girl was his personal favourite out of the entire show in the news brief held immediately after the faked show. Zhang spoke in great details how hard the red dressed girl had been rehearsing for the show. However, he didn't bother to tell the excited reporters who were still stunned by the 50 minutes, $300 Million faked show, that the girl was just faking. Retrospective thinking, it makes one chill when reviewing the tape of the new brief to see Zhang specifically told the reporters the red dressed girl sang the beautiful song, and how beautiful her voice was. In an lengthy interview to the red dressed gril's family made by the CCTV, the parents of the red dressed girl talked endlessly on the girl's 'performance' and how lovely their daughter had always been. There's not a single bit of shame or guilt, and of course they did not bother to mention that their daughter did not sing the song that touched the heart of billions of people. There's a saying: like father like son/daughter. Zhang Yimou has the world under his command with unlimited budget to produce the 50 minutes show. However, there are many things in the world that money can't buy, for example: honesty, dignity, or professionalism.

After the truth was leaked out accidentally by the Beijing Radio Station, Communism CCTV rushed to air an interview of Yang Peiyi three days after they fed the faked opening ceremony to the world. The interview was supposed to praise the little girl for her 'willingly' sacrifice for the county in name of a better show. The girl, accompanied by her father, was shown testified before the camera that she had no regret or hard feelings. She said she was happy because her voice was there. This is a heartbreaking moment, probably even more so than we were touched by her beautiful voice staged in the Olympic opening ceremony. What does a 7 years old know? What do we adults know? What do we do? How are we going to raise our children? Apparently there's no such words as 'shame' or 'shameless' in the dictionary of CCTV. Whatever the Olympic spirit stands for, whatever athletes fight for, whatever people looking for, it couldn't be represented by this ugly show.

In fairy tale 'Little Mermaid', her voice was stolen by the evil octopus by playing nasty tricks. So in the real life, as real as the show aired live to the entire world, who is the evil octopus?


The name of the person who is behind the arrangement is Chen Qigang, the chief music director of the opening ceremony faked show. A Shanghai born, French trained son-of-bitch. Chen Qigang's mentor is Olivier Messiaen. Next time, if there is a next time, please, no Frenchmen, no Shanghainese.


Shanghai:v. To induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force: We were shanghaied into buying worthless securities.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.


请把最后一点纯真留给孩子--关于妙可和沛宜

很偶然的从央视新闻里看到这么一段:

2008北京奥运会开幕式音乐总监陈其钢告诉主持人,8月8日晚开幕式上那首《歌唱祖国》的声音原来并不是来自那位次日登上《纽约时报》的小红星林妙可--那个令亿万观众感动落泪欢呼不已的纯美声音的主人是一位7岁的小女孩杨沛宜。

至于这个“双簧”的原因,陈总监解释说,因为考虑到对外形象所以最后决定用外形更好一些的林小朋友...

新闻节目中,杨沛宜面对记者,演唱了一小段歌曲,一副童真的可爱模样,至少我个人认为她的长相是很可爱和讨人喜欢的,还不至于会因为长相问题被淘汰,况且,我一直认为,世上没有丑的孩子,“每个孩子都是上帝牵着手送到这个世界来的”。

当记者问她有没有觉得遗憾时,她回答说不遗憾,开幕式上有自己的声音已经很满足了...

看完新闻,我说不出话来...

这也算是个大爆料吧,为何在开幕式结束后的那场新闻发布会上,主创人员任何人都对代唱一事只字未提呢?张艺谋导演当时甚至特的向记者们隆重推出了一下林妙可,介绍了一下这个小姑娘的情况。我不免疑惑:当时张艺谋大导演似乎更应该把这位幕后的杨小朋友向广大观众推出一下,效果会比事隔几日后才由音乐总监陈其钢向观众道出真相好得多吧。如果陈总监没有讲出这段隐情,恐怕杨小朋友要远做一个藏在幕后不为人所知的声音了。

现在,已经有数不清的观众认定林小朋友才是真命天女,并且涌现出了越来越多的“可可粉”们,在这种情况下,幕后代唱事件的公布,对两位小朋友恐怕都不是什么好事。

网友对此议论纷纷,有人认为,以杨沛宜处在换牙期而由林妙可顶上的说法不靠谱,因为小孩子换牙是正常现象,还不至于“有损国体”;有人更逗,调侃说如果导演认为长相不好的歌手会有损国体,那么更应该给刘欢、韩红找帅哥美女出台顶替;甚至有些离谱的,直接发问:林妙可也被张艺谋潜规则了吗?

其实,如果把开幕式视为一场文艺演出,那么导演是有权决定如何安排和使用人力物力财力,只要演出的结果得到观众认可,那么演出就可以说是成功的。但是当这件事牵涉到两个分别只有9岁、7岁年纪的小孩子时,观众在得知真相后的愤愤不平可想而知。开幕式上更多打动观众的,是那个天真无邪的声音,为了导演心目中的“完美”而组合了导演认为最动听的声音和最美的面庞,那么,在全世界都在为这个美丽面庞喝彩叫好的时候,是否也该为那个动听的声音鼓一下掌,认可一下她的辛劳与付出?

再想想林小朋友在台上的演出,一个9岁的孩子能够把一幕并不简单的双簧演绎的几乎完美无缺,我不由的担忧:这孩子通过这次开幕式表演,会不会已经认为出众的长相可以给自己带来更多的机会和荣耀?

作为一个导演,对于完美的追求无可厚非,但悲哀的是,在得到了他自己想要的完美的同时,也毁了两个孩子本该纯净如水的童真。因为他的选择和淘汰相当于已经给这两个孩子和他所面向的所有观众传达了这样的信息和理念:外表的美丽高于一切,因为只有外表是展示于人们眼前的,至于其他所有美好都只是外表的陪衬和修饰而已。

这种美的追求,恕我实在难以认可,尤其是对于孩子们,最美好的童年时光转瞬即逝,请在他们还不需要接触社会的红白灰黑与人情冷暖的年纪,把后一点纯真留给他们。



作者: 58.25.101.*

2008-8-12 03:58


从林妙可假唱想起点事

来源: 风过山岚 于 08-08-11 15:33:18

我一直很困惑该怎么教小孩子, 什么样的小孩子将来会过得比较好。

我上中学的时候班里有个孩子成绩很好, 跟我和另外一个同学不上下, 基本我们三就是数一数二。我们两是属于比较低调的那种。 那个孩子特别高调, 什么能出风头就干什么。

我记得有一次, 学校的演讲比赛, 但是是很个人的, 不是比班级的那种。 班里本来叫我去, 那是个节日,我好像是班长还是什么的, 所以班里也会有活动。我怕到时候忙不过来,毕竟学习重要, 就问老师能不能让别人去。 那个同学马上说,好啊,只是我也很忙, 这样吧, 让她(指我)给我些演讲稿,我去讲! 我当时都不知道说什么好。 你要是写演讲稿,我也有时间去讲。 这么会利用别人啊? 结果还真是, 老师让我写稿子让那个同学去, 我也不好意思说要是这样我就自己去了。结果一点时间没省下来, 费劲扒拉地写好稿子, 人家出风头去了。 这种事情特别多。后来这个同学是学校的学生会副主席,一搞活动, 叫大家这里负责那里负责,她肯定一直待在校领导身边。

还有一次,我们两代表学校去参加省里的英语比赛, 赛前那个同学让我帮忙抽查单词,我认认真真地在那说了十几分钟, 后来想让那个同学问我, 那个同学立刻说,我们该休息了, 老这么背情绪不好。

这个孩子特别喜欢显摆,老说自己多牛多牛,当然不是特别没边的那种, 属于半真半假, 但是一看就特别显摆的那种。比赛得了奖, 她家搞了一帮本地电视台的记者去采访, 我们当地新闻播了好多天。 其实我们学校是重点学校, 年年那些比赛都有3,5个得奖的, 但是谁也没这么搞过。 后来那些新闻录像申请保送的时候全寄给北大招生办了。比方说她后来上了北大,大一的时候大家还喜欢写信,一写信就说什么国家领导人去他们学校演讲什么的。 其实大家都在很好的学校, 至于吗?而且 , 一般的人, 就算国家领导来我们学校了, 也不至于到处跟人写信吧。后来她去了哈佛, 一写EMAIL就说哈佛该学院历史上从来不招中国人, 自己是历史第一人。 其实这年头, 大家一上网什么都查到了, 但是人就那么说, 还特骄傲。 当然她成绩也是很好的那种。

我小时候受的教育,老觉得这样不好, 我老觉得人好不好大家都看着呢, 吹什么呀? 还有让别人写稿子自己去出风头的那种事, 我都不好意思开口。 所以当年我心里还有点不待见她。但是这么多年以后我发现好像不是这样的。 这孩子的性格吧,大家也觉得她喜欢显摆,喜欢怎么着, 她不会有特别亲的朋友, 但是交游广阔,好像谁都能认识, 尤其是上面的人,而且大家一说起来, 虽然觉得她老喜欢抬高自己, 但是好像大家都觉得她也确实挺牛的。 这个孩子从北大到哈佛, 后来进了很有名的一间公司, 毕业这几年每两三年总要跳回槽, 名头搞得都挺吓人的, 年薪跟我们这些同学里面同是名校,背景差不多的人的年薪都不在一个档次上。

现在吧, 我特困惑, 倒不是说我妒嫉。 我自己反正就是这样了。我就是想该怎么教孩子。

就说那个林妙可假唱吧, 我看见有人说要是自己是那个真唱的孩子的妈妈就不让自己女儿去为人作嫁衣服。真的吗? 那也很难跟孩子解释啊?我觉得这是个问题。

Monday, August 11, 2008

Women Change World

A woman changed the world - what did Secretary Rice tell Georgia on July 10?

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Georgia on July 10, 2008. Rice met Georgian President Saakashvili, and discussed issues of Georgia's perspective in NATO and South Ossetia separatism.

South Ossetia is a autonomous republic within Georgia, across the Russia-Georgia border to the North Ossetia, part of Russia. Based on a truce agreement between South Ossetia and Georgia made in 1992, Russia keeps a peace keeping force in South Ossetia. More than 70% of the South Ossetia citizens hold Russian citizenship.

What happened after this was history.

On August 8, 2008, Georgia military bombarded Russian peace keeping forces and seized the capital city of South Ossetia despite resistant from local militias. One thousand of five hundred residents were to die in the very first day of this war. At the time, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was in Beijing watching the opening ceremony. As anyone can expect after the Bear is awakened, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered counter attack. Russian Tanks rolled into Georgia, with Russian bombers bombed military targets across entire Georgia. It has been reported that up to 7000 Georgian soldiers had been captured out of the total of 27000 strong army. Georgian military withdrew from the capital city Tskhinvali. In diplomatic field, Georgia President begged Russia for an immediate truce.

What did Rice tell him?

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Recycled Gyoza Double Kill

Gyoza dumplings produced by a Hebei food factory were recalled after Japanese died of pesticide poisoning. An intensively contended joint investigation did not find a conclusive theory as to where and how the dumplings were poisoned. Japanese police determined the poisoning took place in China before being imported to Japan, while the Chinese police proclaimed the poisoning could only happen after it reached Japanese shore.

During the investigation, dumplings were recalled from the shelf of stores. Chinese government allowed these batch of dumplings re-entering the retail market, in China of course. Many more Chinese were to be poisoned to death in the months followed by this greedy and blind decision.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry formally admitted the guilt to the Japanese government in a statement made August 7, 2008, one day before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Beijing.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Perception of Chinese Around the World


A BBC Survey of the perception of Chinese in varies countries shows Americans and Koreans are most hostile towards Chinese, while Americans tend to blame it on the government. Apparently the British have best luck getting laid in Beijing. Indians are the only group of people envy on the freedom Chinese enjoy in China. In general, BBC concluded, it did not seem people in the rest of the world see Chinese a dominant threat to the world.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Separatists Struke

The Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement launched a sudden strike in Xinjiang days before the summer Olympics games start. Sixteen militarized police soldiers were killed and 16 others were injured. According to eye witnesses' account, one terrorist drove a heavy engineering truck into a group of soldiers who were doing morning exercises on the sidewalk of public road, only 100 yards from their barrack. Another terrorist who had been waiting nearby threw a grenade into the stunned group. Both terrorists were captured alive. The Eastern Turkestan Movement is sponsored by the US government with their headquarter located in Washington D.C., despite China's repeatedly protests.

It's no surprising that the US government sponsor terrorists across the world, as they have always been doing in the past. What puzzled many people outside China is the inability of Chinese military to protest themselves from such terrorists attack. In China, soldiers do not carry weapons most of the time when they are on duty, and when they do, they do not carry ammunitions. The Communism constitution proclaimed that all military forces must be loyal to the Party, rather than to the people, the government or the country. As bizarre as it is, even the Party is not confident on how convincing it sounds. Therefore, the Party does not trust the military and the people to the extend that they do not feel comfortable to have a modernized professional military force. Fighters pilots only receive minimum amount of basic training such as taking off and landing. Navy warships were not to said outside shore-based bombers. Ground troops were not allowed to carry live ammunition most of the time. With this, the Chinese military personnels became a ripe target for terrorists attacks.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Too Hot to Be Hungry

About 30 protesters sponsored who had been conducting a hunger strike relay in Nepal protesting Chinese policy in Tibet called off the show citing bad weather. The hunger strike was sponsored by the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), a terrorists organization who had claimed responsibility for many bombs and riots in China and India. According to the group leader Nyima Dolkar, participants felt fatigue and uncomfortable in hot weather. When the relay started two months ago, they vowed to "continue our hunger strike relay until our demands are met". Usually people with an empty stomach felt uncomfortable in cold weather, maybe these group of protesters were inexperienced and consumed too much calorie between two shifts.

Only Women have Spine

When the world bowed to the Communism Beijing to join the party of the summer Olympic games, only women have spine to speak up. The German Chancellor is the only national leader of major western countries who publicly refused to attend the opening ceremony, and the prime minister of New Zealand is the another woman leader who openly taunted China on its human rights record. The US House Speaker, the No. 3 person in the US and highest ranked woman leader, encouraged separatism terrorists to protest the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco. On the contrary, President Bush not only be the first to commit to attending the ceremony, but also bring an entire family that includes the senior Bush, a brother, a sister, a wife and a daughter to Beijing.

There was an ancient Chinese satire 'Shanghaijing (Scripture of Mountain and Sea)' where an female ruled countries was documented. In the Great Culture Revolution time, this was read as an evidence that women could and did lead a county. However, recent study revealed that the story was made up to warm people the catastrophic consequences of female ruling scenario.