Pushing the boundaries

Born to a military officer father and translator mother, Jin Xing joined an art school of the People's Liberation Army to learn dance when he was 9. In 1987, he became the first Chinese dancer to be awarded a scholarship to study modern dance in New York and soon rose to the challenge. Jin's debut in the United States earned him a standing ovation and also won him an award for choreography at America's major dance festival.

The New York Times called the dancer "a genius". Then Jin moved to Europe to work as a choreographer and dancer in Rome and Brussels. But he did not join a single dance company in the West and returned China to found the Beijing Modern Dance Company in 1995.

"I could have been a successful minority dancer in the West but I think they loved me because my dance featured Chinese culture, which fascinates them. But this is something I have grown up with and inspires my creations. So I [felt I] must return to my roots," Jin recalls.