For the master of China's ceremonies, a great leap forward

BEIJING: For much of the past quarter-century, the Chinese director Zhang Yimou made films that showcased his country's struggle against poverty, war and political misrule to the outside world - films that Chinese, for the most part, never saw.

Time and again, Zhang's terse, gritty epics were banned by government censors for portraying China's ugly side. When he won an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, the authorities stopped him from attending.

When one of his films was nominated for an Academy Award one year, Chinese officials lobbied to have it withdrawn from contention.

But when the Olympics kicks off Friday night at China's new National Stadium, with Presidents George W. Bush and Hu Jintao in attendance, and perhaps one billion people watching live on television, Zhang's artistic vision will be on vivid display at the opening ceremony.

Nearly two years in the making, his spectacle is intended to present China's new face to the world with stagecraft and pyrotechnics that organizers boast has no equal in the history of the Games. Whether or not it succeeds, it will underscore one reality of a rising China: Many leading artists now work with, or at least not against, the ruling Communist Party. ....