CHINA: Taiwan-born film director Ang Lee, whose Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain was banned in China for its homosexual content, has been selected as an arts and culture consultant for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The 51-year-old director will advise a creative team headed by China's top film-maker Zhang Yimou and which includes Hollywood's Steven Spielberg, according to the Beijing organising committee's website.
China considers Taiwan as sovereign territory, a renegade province that will one day be returned to the fold, by force if necessary. Beijing carefully censors any reference to the self-ruled island which might suggest it is not part of "one China". Lee was born in southern Taiwan and is viewed on the mainland as a native son.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon made him a huge name in China in 2001 and there was a widespread outpouring of national pride when he picked up the best director Oscar for Brokeback Mountain this year.
However, homosexuality is still not widely tolerated in China and was considered a mental illness until five years ago. There was no way a gay cowboy romance was ever likely to get a release on the Chinese mainland, although it proved popular on pirated DVD.
Chinese state media also cut out the part of his acceptance speech where he thanked, in Chinese, "everyone" in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.
The Games are due to open on August 8th, 2008, and will close on August 24th.
The head of Beijing's organising committee, Liu Qi, congratulated the new team of consultants and said he hoped they would "with rich experience and far-reaching vision . . . provide precious suggestions and advice to the organising team".
After the ceremony, Lee and the other consultants were briefed by Zhang, who is directing the opening and closing ceremonies, on the progress of the creative side and gave their opinions.