Yang uncertain to perform at Games closing ceremony

Asked to comment whether Yang would be allowed to sing at the closing ceremony, Executive Vice Chairman of the Beijing organising committee for the Olympic Games, Jiang Xuaoyu said, “I think you will have to wait for four days.”

“You will have to be patient,” Jiang told a group of visiting foreign correspondents for the 2008 Beijing Olympics being held from August 8-24.

Lin, who is from a Beijing primary school had become a national sensation since her performance on August 8, giving interviews to all major newspapers.

But the show’s musical designer felt forced to set the record straight and revealed that the real singer was Yang, who had won a gruelling competition to perform the anthem, a patriotic song called “Hymn to the Motherland”.

Media reports allege that Yang was asked not to sing in front of the audience by a senior Communist Party leader at the last moment after watching a rehearsal because of her buck teeth.

Thus, on the night of August 8, while a pre-recording of Yang singing was played, Lin, who has already featured in television advertisements, was seen but not heard.

“The main consideration was the national interest,” he said. “This was a last-minute question, a choice we had to make,” the ceremony’s musical designer, Chen Qigang, said.

“Our rehearsals had already been vetted several times – they were all very strict. When we had the dress rehearsals, there were spectators from various divisions, including above all a member of the politburo who gave us his verdict. We had to make the swap,” he said, shaming the organisers, who apparently did all they could to ensure a good image for China.