According to Kaiser Kuo, group director for digital strategy at Ogilvy & Mather China, the blackout has followed a “stream of indignation on China’s BBS” over the lip-synching episode, with netizens concerned about the image of China the story sends out.
International media reported on Wednesday that seven-year-old singer Yang Peiyi had been replaced by nine-year-old Lin Miaoke for the ceremony, with Lin miming to Yang’s vocals. Yang was allegedly dropped at the behest of the authorities for having a chubby face and bad teeth.
Chinese papers did not report the story on Wednesday, and links to it online have been barred or erased.
Kuo pointed out that lip-synching has become a touchy subject in China. In February actress Zhang Ziyi was accused of lip-synching during the annual live Spring Festival broadcast on CCTV, an event that gains huge ratings. While lip-synching is nothing new, Zhang’s poor performance at it led to a string of complaints on portal Sina.
