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After the successful Olympic opening ceremony, director Zhang Yimou rode a carousal of media interviews. In one of them he revealed that a member of the organizing committee of the 2012 London Games "invited" him to their show. Zhang turned down the offer. In China, Zhang is the kind of celebrity about whom anything is newsworthy, and this remark instantly gave rise to a debate. Some argued that Zhang should have accepted the offer, using it as another opportunity to "promote Chinese culture", or at least the Chinese way of doing things. One commentator suspected Zhang had fabricated the story to make himself look good. Well, without calling London for the truth, I'll offer my two cents worth: First, I don't think Zhang made it up. But I also don't believe London gave him the position equivalent to what he had for the Beijing Games. I guess the London people were impressed with the Beijing show and one of them said something to congratulate him, something like "Hey, it was the greatest Olympics show I've ever seen, and you should come to London to do our show." Even if the remark was serious rather than perfunctory. One person, no matter how senior, would not have the power to make that kind of decision on the spur of the moment. I don't know what the British decision-making process is, but it is surely more rigid than what Zhang's remark seemed to suggest. Most likely, it was just an invitation to bid for that position. | 
