SYDNEY (AFP) – Eight years after it hosted an Olympics that were famously hailed as the “best games ever,” Sydney has had to confess that it faked one of the key musical performances at the opening ceremony in 2000.

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The revelation came after it emerged that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke was just lip-synching when she “sang” a patriotic song before 91,000 people and a global television audience during the August 8 opening ceremony at the Beijing Games.

Orchestra bosses have admitted that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) mimed its entire performance at the ceremony, and that some of the real music was in fact recorded by rival musicians in Melbourne.

“It was all pre-recorded and the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) did record a minority of the music that was performed,” SSO managing director Libby Christie told Australia’s Fairfax newspapers earlier this week.

“It’s correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording,” she said.

The respected orchestra gave the fake performance because Olympics organisers “wanted to leave nothing to chance” and a second orchestra was found to record the backing tape because of a “mountainous workload” in Sydney, Christie said.

The admission has columnists in Melbourne — which has a longstanding rivalry with glitzier Sydney — crowing over the fact that its musicians ghosted a crucial performance by their arch-rivals.

The head of the MSO confirmed the performance had been pre-recorded but defended the move, saying it was “purely a workload issue” and in no way reflected on the relative quality of either orchestra.

“It’s nothing to do with priorities or which orchestra is better. It was decided to split (the work) between the two orchestras,” he said.

“It’s quite a normal practice and if the Olympics had been in Melbourne, the Sydney Symphony would have been involved — I’m sure of that.”

Christie said the Sydney orchestra had very rarely mimed performances but had done so at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney, while the MSO said it had used a backing tape at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

oh? Tell that to the southern states in US that.

Pls read the other post in GVO China: Citizen reporter to be deported, where you have been answered.

Don’t teach your grandfather to suck egg.

-> One of our ancestor(that is if you call Genghis Khan a Chinese) plunged Europe into Dark Ages.How many civilizations he annihilated?

Really? Dark ages in Europe occured from around 470 AD to around 1000 AD. Genghis Khan was born in 1162 AD…He must have been a great man to do this. ;)

As for whether he was Chinese or not. I am not one of those who feel China needs to justify the claim of territory by linking history. Anyway, my personal opinion is that Genghis Khan was as Chinese as William of Normandy was British.

-> …you are telling me you care more about black people in America?

Huh? Let me reframe this conversation for you since you tend to jump off track…The conversation was about the openning cer of olympics. You were telling me the director didn’t include some of the darker moments of Chinese history…I replied that in ATL ‘96, the games I went to, no one brought up the darker moments of American history; and no one complains about it. For you to complain about Chinese open cer and yet frame Atl opening cer as a shining example makes you a hypocrite.

Back to Olympics…As I recall, the opening cer. of Atlanta games didn’t exactly explain why there are black men in US…even though Ali was the show piece of the ceramony…just a tad hypocritical of you, no?

At least these ancient artifacts are still safely in museums of the West,be it private or public.
Can you tell me how many “ancient artifacts” those little Red Guards destroyed during Cultural Revolution?
How many ancient texts,scrolls,rare books,were burned,with the approval of Mao?
Didn’t Zhang yi-mou feel a bit embarrassed when he was displaying Chinese Han writing and painting,and conveniently forgetting what have the Red Guards done to Han culture?

LOL Mr. Racist, at the same time, they also pushed opium and other “goods” and strive to keep China divided to protect their business interests and looting Chinese ancient artifacts.

You tell me, is there anything wrong with that? Was God pleased by that? Was that what Jesus would have done?

BTW, my wife’s family are devote Christians and have been attending churches all their lives in China. Never there was an issue. There are problems with religious freedoms in China but far less than what you make it out to be.

Let me see Mr Racist, how far into Chinese history are you going to go to avoid my questions and rebuttals? ;)