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Usually one hates to admit he or she is wrong on a prediction. But I, for one, am more than glad to say I did not get it right on the Zhang Yimou-directed extravaganza for last night's Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. He achieved something I thought he was both incapable of and unwilling to do. To start with, he went for the high-brow - if we use the CCTV New Year's eve gala as a benchmark - a risky move considering the size of the audience. Of course there was plenty to please the senses, but movable type printing and ancient paintings seemed too archaic a subject. Hey, it turned out to be some of the most ingenious moments of the evening. The concept of an ink painting was exactly what I said Zhang and his team would never dare choose. The distilled colors of black and white are simply the opposite of his favorite color scheme of bright red and yellow, China's de rigueur choice for celebration. I do not know how much pressure he had to withstand before he could convince people that dancers clad in pitch black imitating brush strokes or in white doing the tai chi would be a good idea. It seems that Zhang and company were inspired by the 2004 Athens show, which did not aim to win over people with no knowledge of the ancient civilization. While sculpture was the manifestation in Greece, Zhang resorted to Chinese painting, upon whose abstract lines a colorful world emerged, including the not surprising Peking Opera and the very well produced "Ritual Music", where grand and regal styles of the Tang Dynasty literally rose and reached for the sky. | 
