Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
China to Ban Lip Synching
Only a few months after China was ripped for having a nine-year-old lip synch a song during the Olympic opening ceremonies, the Ministry of Culture is declaring war on the art of pretending to sing music that is actually being played on the sound system. A law is in the works, but the ministry said that it wants to seek public opinion before it begins enforcement. The "public opinion" stage is a mere formality. The parliament passes nearly all laws that are sent its way. A draft of the law states: "Performers must not cheat audiences by lip-synching, and concert organizers must not arrange for performers to lip-synch." Two time offenders will be forced to relinquish their performer's license for a two year period. First time synchers will merely be smeared by the Ministry of Culture.
Is all this just too ironic? No really. The Olympic lip synching incident was a major loss of face for Beijing. Cracking down is a way to regain some of their respect. Unfortunately, the impending law means that all that awful, awful Mandopop will become even more unbearable because there will be no studio-perfected soundtrack to keep us from hearing a pop star's real voice.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Katie-Anne Nov 14th 2008 8:08AM
For me Beijing lost face not because they had the girl lip synch, but because of the reason why she lip synched - she couldn't sing and the girl who could sing wasn't pretty enough. Lip synching to your own voice is one thing, lip synching because you can't sing is a whole different ball game.