While the jaw-dropping opening ceremony of the Olympics last August has been lauded as Beijing's coming-out party and director Zhang Yimou praised as its amazing host, not many have heard of Haosi International. But it was this group that collaborated with Zhang in 2005 to post the winning bid.

Of the approximately 400 bids worldwide, this was the only one that paired a famous Chinese director and a private Chinese company. Liu Qi, president of Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, said then that the ideas that were presented, "went beyond my imagination".

The awesome spectacle that was presented that August night was the result of three years of cooperation between a talented director and a determined company. But their association did not end with the Olympics. Instead, the Games set the company on an ambitious path to create a world-renowned, made-in-China entertainment label, Chinese Princess.

"The opening ceremony ended when the fireworks went out, but the passion for the Olympics, for promoting Chinese culture and the chemistry between the team members remained. We had seen the Bird's Nest being constructed and had worked together for three years for just one night's extravaganza. (We thought) there had to be something to keep this alive," said Dennis Ye, president of Haosi International.

Their first idea was to do an abridged version of the opening ceremony called Forever Olympics, to be run regularly at the Bird's Nest, and then take it on tour to all the cities that had hosted an Olympic sport. It did not materialize for two reasons: One, the opening ceremony involved many copyrights which they found hard to purchase; second, it was also felt that the idea may not sell.

It was at this time that Ye learned by chance that director Zhang, co-director Chen Weiya, lighting specialist Sha Xiaolan, and set designer Zeng Li, besides some others, were the same people who had staged the opera Turandot in Florence in 1997 and at the Forbidden City in 1998.

"I had seen Zhang's Turandot at the Forbidden City. The brand-new and very Chinese version of Puccini's opera impressed me very much. I decided that Turandot was the project I was looking for. The creative team has worked together for a decade, including on the open-air productions at sports arenas in Seoul, Paris and Munich. (I also knew) that Puccini's opera had a worldwide audience," said Ye.

He settled on Turandot, investing 120 million yuan. Putting such a huge amount on an opera of which just two shows would be run at the Bird's Nest in October seemed like a crazy idea, but not to Ye. The two shows are just the start. His ambition is to create a label, like Disney.

"It is impossible to earn back the cost from two nights. The Bird's Nest has 91,000 seats and two sold-out shows can bring in about 80 million yuan at the box office. And our survey of Beijing's show business showed that there were more than 4,000 shows running in the city in 2007 with total box-office earnings of 380 million yuan," said Ye.

"So two nights' of opera is far from enough. We want to turn Turandot into a high-level cultural label. (Our plan is that) after the opera, we would make a musical, a TV series, a cartoon and publish books, produce toys, dolls and even build a theme park like Disneyland.

"Shanghai will spend 5 billion yuan building Disneyland. 5 billion! But how much would the government pay to support a domestic project? Even 500 million yuan, I thought, could get us our own theme park, for instance, say, Chinese Princess."

After the two shows at the Bird's Nest in October, Haosi International will take it on a world tour. Meanwhile, it is also working on a musical called Chinese Princess that tells the story of a group of smart Chinese girls studying and working abroad. It is scheduled to premiere during the Shanghai Expo. This will be followed by a TV series with a similar theme.

Ye, a 39-year-old economics graduate from Renmin University of China, first set up a company in 1995 providing marketing support for big names such as Microsoft, Canon and Mercedes-Benz. So, how did he turn to the culture industry?

Ye said that he loved the arts from a young age. In primary school, he spent most of his free time drawing and in high school he enjoyed reading literature. Before he sat the national college entrance exams, he agonized for long over whether he should choose drama school or Renmin University.

"My father, who is a doctor, was sent to France with a medical team and on his return he told me that China's economy was far behind Europe's and that the country would need people who understood the economics. I decided to study economics but my love for arts remained," said Ye.

He recalled that in university, he would often cut classes to go to the cinema. He also went to theaters and museums. But he never thought his interest in the arts would take him to the peak of his career.

"I feel lucky to have been able to combine my personal interest and my career. And I also feel great that what my team is doing is going to be a big part of the upcoming creative industry.

"Creating and developing a cultural label is not simply about making money from it but promoting Chinese culture in the world."