Chinese movie master Zhang Yimou's opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympic Games have won high praise throughout the world.

And now he joins the illustrious company of president elect Barack Obama, US Federal Reserve governor Henry Paulson, French President Nicholas Zarkozy and US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as Time magazine's top people of the year.

Academy award-winning director Steven Spielberg wrote a tribute to Zhang in the latest edition of the magazine saying the opening ceremony was a work of true genius.

"In one evening of visual and emotional splendor, he educated, enlightened and entertained us all. In doing so, Zhang secured himself a place in world history," Spielberg said.

"This level of thematic and creative artistry is rare in the controlled realm of filmmaking, let alone in a multidimensional arena with thousands of performers and visual set pieces that seemed to border on the impossible - yet it was all happening live, before the eyes of the world."

Zhang's rag to riches personal story also added drama to his career. His first job was as a farmhand before working in a cotton mill. To earn enough money to purchase his first camera, he gave blood over a period of months and then was considered too old for film school.

But Spielberg says Zhang has inspired the world's fascination with China through his cinematic vision.

"Not since the great British director Michael Powell has a director used color so effectively to tell stories," he says.

"In Red Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou (1990) and his magnum opus, Raise the Red Lantern (1991), the vivid use of red in the manufacturing of wine, the traditional wedding gown, the process of dyeing silk and even the crimson splashes of blood illuminate Zhang's celebration of life, exoticism and death."

Ju Dou was the first Chinese film to be nominated for an Academy Award; Raise the Red Lantern was the second.

Spielberg also highlighted how Zhang had brought actress Gong Li to prominence, casting her in starring roles in six of his films. "Together they are credited with introducing sensuality and eroticism to Chinese cinema," he said.

"Western audiences are probably familiar with Zhang more from his action movies: Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and his most Shakespearean work, Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), in which he choreographed giant armies in ways not seen since the heyday of the Busby Berkeley musical extravaganza."

Spielberg said Zhang's depth and breadth of vision for the Games ceremonies were evident in the early stages of planning in 2005, when the two directors met.

"We met on a sunny afternoon in East Hampton, New York, and I knew immediately we were going to become good friends," he said.

"With computer renderings on his laptop, he showed me what he was thinking. That was when I realized that every movie he had ever made would be a luminous precursor to what was surely going to be a personal journey of destiny.

"Zhang would be the creator-director of the Olympic ceremonies, with the honor of putting on what would become the greatest show on earth, with China at center stage.

"I was honored to have been one of the first people stirred and inspired by Zhang's ideas."

(China Daily December 23, 2008)