Beijing Big Foot Step

I was watching the live telecast of the Beijing Olympics 2008 Grand Opening last friday. It was a marvelous show and I must say that Beijing has planned it well and executed it perfectly.

However, the perfect left behind some little flaws.

I read a news report that Bejing pre-recorded some of the firework display of the Big Giant Footstep and included them in the telecast. The reason cited was the weather condition makes it harder to film it live on the actual opening day.

Well, to me, I think that’s fine as we just need to articulate the possible difficulty and find a solution to solve it proactively. I would say that is very considerate down to the details to make sure it is a perfect show.

Olympics Singer Yang Peiyi

Lin Miaoke

However, I read another piece of news, in order to create the PERFECT show, Beijing decided to substitute the real singer, Yang Peiyi, of “Ode to the Motherland” (歌唱祖国) and asked another girl, Lin Miaoke, to replace her. Worse still, they did not record the song again and asked Lin Miaoke to lip sync the song in front of the whole world.

Personally, I find that this is totally unacceptable. I also found out that there is a law in China that prevent singers to lip sync in any performance as that is considered deceiving. However, Beijing chose to ignore this law and telecast the lip sync performance in front of the whole world. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? (I read on newspaper that Beijing did change the law before the Olympics as well).

All this actions are leaving a big flaw behind the grand and spectacular Olympics show. Beijing must understand that a perfect show must leave behind a perfect for all the viewers but not leaving behind a controversial flaw for the people. Particularly, Beijing should not let 2 young little to bear all the controversy during their young age.

Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony 2008

Beijing Olympics 2008 has finally started on the Aug 8, 8:08pm. I was truly impressed by the opening ceremony. It was a great show to showcase the culture of the Chinese.

Finally, the final torch bearer was out, it was Lee Ning. Wow, I am also impressed by the way that it was hoisted up around the stadium to show the world about the chinese kungfu.

Here’s a video about the final lap that Lee Ning ran in the air.

I was also truly shocked to see the amount of fireworks used in the opening ceremony. Though I would agree that the fireworks are spectacular. However, I had a feeling that it was overdone. Does it mean to tell the world that Chinese is the inventor of firework?

Also, I have been to some fireworks show before, the air was terribly bad after the fireworks as the smoke spreads. So, imagine many people has been complaining that Beijing had very bad air quality, and the use of big amount of fireworks will definitely make it worse.

Though it is magnificent and spectacular to see such big amount of fireworks in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. I think Beijing should also show some actions on how they are doing to better protect our mother earth and they should use this golden opportunity to tell the world that it is committed to go green as well, I am just a bit disappointed that they did not do anything on that. It just left me a remembrance of such spectacular opening ceremony while it also reminds me of the cyclists competes on the roads with a bad haze at the backdrop.

Beijing Olympics 2008 Bird Nest Stadium

3 More days to go and it will be the openning ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008.

Beijing had rehearsal on the opening ceremony but it has been keeping some details of the penning ceremony very secretive. Like how are they lighting up the Olympics frame, how is the last torch bearer to bring the frame into the stadium.

To me, I feel that this are marketing gimmick and they are doing that for more publicity. The more they said they like to keep it as secret, the more people like to know. We are all human, we have curiosity. Curiosity will pull all the people plus media attention of want to know more. As curiosity increase, the news or information will be perceived to be more valuable.

Look at what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, they were playing the same trick as well. They tried to keep photos of their twin top secret, and finally, they sold photos of their twin for 14 millions. Wow, that’s big sum of money.

So, key learning, if you like people to perceive extra value: Keep it Secretive ;-)