The issue of “face” has always been an important one for a country, which values image and regulates relationships in ways that everyone can preserve “face”. But the decision of the games opening ceremony’s organisers to engineer a “pretty face” fakery for one of the most sublime moments of the gala has divided the country.
The organisers banned seven-year-old Yang Peiyi from appearing on the stage because her round-shaped face with crooked teeth didn’t match the high criteria for perfection set for the pageantry. Spectators gathered at the Bird’s nest Olympic stadium on opening night heard Yang’s angelic voice render one of the country’s’ revolutionary anthems but saw another girl stand in for her.
“What a shame! Apparently it was deemed bad for China’s image to show a little girl with crooked teeth,” raged one blogger. “To ruin such an awesome ceremony with those fakes,” wrote another.
Interestingly though, the director for the opening ceremony – China’s internationally acclaimed film-maker Zhang Yimou, has had a rough ride in the past being accepted by the mainland public because of his penchant for depicting the “ugliness” of China.
His award-winning films in the past – “Raise the Red Lanterns” and “Ju Dou” — were decried by both ordinary people and intelligentsia for lifting the veil on dark and depressing sides of Chinese life. For a while, Zhang was regarded as a renegade that has made China lose face by putting forward the “ugly Chinese”.
The opening ceremony, which Zhang directed, marked a return for him to the embrace of the general public. “At last, he managed to show the splendour of China,” appraised real estate agent Fu Xiaoling. “It shows that foreigners can be impressed not only with the freaky feudal side of China but also with its beauty”.
But the uproar caused by his decision to fake the opening evening song shows the price paid for attempting to fake beauty.
