Miaoke’s performance on the Beijing 2008 Olympic night, like the ceremony itself, was an immediate hit. "Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with patriotic song," the China Daily newspaper headline said.

Zhang, China’s most famous film director, was asked at a post-ceremony news conference about the little girl who swung on wires high above the Bird’s Nest National Stadium during the performance.

"She is a lovely girl and she sings well," Zhang said, according to a transcript posted on the Beijing organizing committee’s web site.

Miaoke, however, was a minor celebrity even before the opening ceremony. The third-grader appeared in a TV ad last year with China’s biggest gold medal hope, hurdling champion Liu Xiang, and she was in an Olympics ad earlier this year, China Daily reported.

Continue reading Linn Miaoke the Beijing Olympic’s sensation

It climaxed with the lighting of the giant cauldron draped in red atop the Bird’s Nest by Chinese gymnastics champion Li Ning, who captured three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the Olympics in which China returned after a 32 year absence.

91,000 enraptured fans at the Bird’s Nest stadium, and an estimated global TV audience of four billion, were treated to an epic display of high-tech wizardry which somehow managed to traverse China’s 6000-year history in 75 minutes.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined a cavalcade of world leaders looking on, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, his US counterpart George W Bush, Britain’s Gordon Brown, Frances Nicolas Sarkozy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The capacity crowd gave a rousing welcome to athletes from the US, Russia, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei and tennis great Roger Federer as he led the Swiss in.

Beijing also warmly welcomed Australia’s athletes - oddly dressed in what looked blue tracksuits, and pedestrian ones at that.

The white cap was a strange accessory choice. The Australian Olympic Committee should brace itself for widespread criticism today.

Continue reading Beijing Olympic Starts with a Spectacular Opening Ceremony