Keeping in step with the shanghai beat

Although he was born in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Hamut Mehmut has become a fixture on the national arts scene, as Cui Jia reports from Shanghai.

This is the first in a series of reports about people from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region who have chosen to settle in other parts of China. More reports will follow.

As someone who speaks the Shanghai dialect fluently and has lived in the city for more than 55 years, Hamut Mehmut calls himself Shanghainese. "At the same time, my identity as a Uygur has always motivated me to excel, because I don't want people to say Uygurs can't do well," the former head of the Shanghai Ballet said.