Little charmer

Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke thrilled television audiences across the world when she took to the stage to "sing" Ode to the Motherland at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last year. It was, of course, later revealed that the real voice behind the lyrics was that of Yang Peiyi, who was replaced at the last-minute by the thousand-watt-smile Lin.

Not that the lip-synching stood in the way of catapulting the youngster to instant fame.

While other nine-year-olds are enjoying the summer holidays, Lin is busy in Inner Mongolia playing the lead role's younger days for a TV series, Beautiful Tricks (Meiren Xinji). The pixie-like Lin reportedly picks up a cool 100,000 yuan per episode, all under the watchful eyes of mom Liu Zheping.