Victoria Chinatown

This is IMPRESSIVE!!!! They deserve our highest respect for so successfully overcoming so much more difficulty in life. Go Canada Go!

Canada has been a strong contender in Paralympic Games. In 2004 Athens, Team Canada won 28 gold, 19 silver, and 25 bronze medals. We were placed third in the medal rankings, behind China and Great Britain.

Vancouver Sun - Canada’s Paralympic swim team got off to a terrific start on opening night at the Water Cube as visually impaired Valerie Grand’Maison of Montreal led a sweep of the medal podium in the women’s-100 metre butterfly in the S13 class.

The 19-year-old Grand’Maison, a Paralympic rookie, bettered her personal-best time by two seconds by finishing first in one minute, 6.49 seconds, half a second off the world-record time.

Kirby Cote of Winnipeg, the gold medallist in Athens four years ago, took silver Sunday in 1:06.49, with Chelsey Gotell of Antigonish, N.S., earning the bronze in 1:06.93.

“Wow! Can you think of anything more fantastic (than a sweep),” said Grand’Maison.

“We all three wanted to win. To all be on the podium is telling the world how Canada is ready and we are going to fight.”

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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.

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.

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.

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”.

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”.

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".

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.

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.

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.