From songs to canvas

A New York sojourn pointed a Chinese singer-songwriter down a new path, all about love

In 1997, Ai Jing visited New York for the first time, when she performed at the CMJ Music Festival in Lincoln Center, an important New York showcase for new bands and musicians from around the world.

Then in her early 20s, singer-songwriter Ai had risen to fame in China in 1995 with her song My 1997, a semi-autobiographical ballad about her love for a man in Hong Kong. She looks forward to Britain's 1997 handover of the island to China so she can visit him.