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China's tough opening

Hardships at Olympic rehearsals

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | Thursday, August 21, 2008

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BEIJING — BEIJING

Martial arts student Cheng Jianghua only saw the army barracks where he stayed and the stadium where he performed at the spectacular Olympics opening ceremony. His sacrifices were minor. Other performers were injured, fainted from heatstroke or were forced to wear adult diapers so the show could go on.

Filmmaker Zhang Yimou, the ceremony's director, insisted in an interview with local media that suffering and sacrifice were required to pull off the Aug. 8 opening, which involved nearly 15,000 cast and crew members. Only North Korea could have done it better, he said.

However, some news reports have raised questions about the lengths to which Beijing went in trying to create a perfect start to the Summer Games.

Chinese officials were accused of fakery for using computer-generated images to enhance the show's fireworks display for TV viewers.

Organizers also have been criticized for their decision to have a 9-year-old girl lip-sync "Ode to the Motherland" because the real singer was deemed not cute enough.

Performers have complained that they sustained injuries from slipping during rain-drenched rehearsals or fainting from heatstroke amid hours of training under the relentless summer sun.

Mr. Cheng and 2,200 other carefully chosen pugilist prodigies spent an average of 16 hours a day, every day, rehearsing a synchronized tai-chi routine involving high kicks, sweeping lunges and swift punches. They lived for three months in trying conditions at a restricted army camp on the outskirts of Beijing.

"We never went out during the time we were training," Mr. Cheng, 20, said in a phone interview. "Our school is quite strict. When we stay in school, we can't go out on our own, let alone when we're at a military camp."

In the most extreme case, Beijing organizers revealed last week that Liu Yan, a 26-year-old dancer, was seriously injured during a July rehearsal. Shanghai media reported that she fell from a 10-foot stage and may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down.