Shanghai 2009
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 02:07
Written by Anna Greenspan

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Jin Xing, China's top modern dancer and choreographer, has a pat phrase when describing the country's mega-cities. Beijing is like a Chinese man, she says, while Shanghai is like a Chinese woman. Beijing, at the center of power and decision making is often considered to be China's cultural soul. There are more artists willing to do what they want, Jin explains, with many high quality companies. Shanghai also has some excellent performers, but what the city lacks is a tight-knit artistic community. Chinese men like to get together to drink and chat. Women are more solitary, less communicative and extremely competitive. “We have the stock exchange,” Jin Xing complains, “but where is the cultural exchange?” With Shanghai everything is on the surface. The city thrives on fashion, modeling and luxury goods. “Shanghai is like a glamorous woman flirting with you in the darkness. She is all charm and glitter. But when you get close there is no substance.” Jin Xing, China's top modern dancer and choreographer, has a pat phrase when describing the country's mega-cities. Beijing is like a Chinese man, she says, while Shanghai is like a Chinese woman. Beijing, at the center of power and decision making is often considered to be China's cultural soul. There are more artists willing to do what they want, Jin explains, with many high quality companies. Shanghai also has some excellent performers, but what the city lacks is a tight-knit artistic community. Chinese men like to get together to drink and chat. Women are more solitary, less communicative and extremely competitive. “We have the stock exchange,” Jin Xing complains, “but where is the cultural exchange?” With Shanghai everything is on the surface. The city thrives on fashion, modeling and luxury goods. “Shanghai is like a glamorous woman flirting with you in the darkness. She is all charm and glitter. But when you get close there is no substance.”
Nevertheless, Jin Xing chooses to live in Shanghai. Though Beijing has artistic vibrancy she found the urban environment too rough. “My quality of life suffered”, she explains. “As an artist I need the refinement and aesthetic details of a city like Shanghai.”
Throughout her life, Jin Xing has sided with the female. She was born as a boy in 1967 in the northern town of Shenyang. At the age of nine she joined the military dance troupe of the People Liberation Army where she eventually rose to the rank of Colonel. In 1995 she underwent a sex change and became China's first recognized transexual.
Her dance training combines Russian ballet, the rich traditions of Chinese folk dances, and Chinese classical dance which incorporates elements of Peking opera and martial arts. In America she discovered the world of contemporary dance and learnt to fuse the discipline, training and technical virtuosity of her Asian background with the artistic freedom and self expression of the West.
After returning to China in 1999 she formed her own company, the Jin Xing Dance Theater, with which she has created a series of visually stunning and intellectually challenging pieces including “Shanghai Beauty”, “Shanghai Tango”, and more recently “Made in China”.
Jin Xing's investment in the cultural life of the city, however, extends beyond her own company's creations. She is also producer of the Shanghai International Dance Festival, an annual, privately funded event that she supports out of her own personal finances. “People said I should buy stock but I'm not interested. I want to put my money where my interests are – that’s dance.” The festival grew out of a sense of exasperation. Sick of agencies going abroad and bringing third-class acts back to a Chinese audience and tired of hoping and waiting for the city officials to promote high quality performance, Jin Xing decided to create a contemporary festival herself. “I felt that in the field of dance at least I've got to do something. There are so many good performers out there. I wanted to let people see China in a different light.” The annual Shanghai Dance Festival, which started in 2006, promotes international and local, seasoned and new choreographers. The festival's high quality performances have gained public and professional recognition and the event has already become essential to the cultural rhythm of the city.
Jin Xing is passionate about promoting culture in Shanghai. Economic freedom is making the city thrive but its lack of culture is holding it back, she argues. “You can feel the international energy of this great cosmopolitan city, but without culture and the arts it doesn't mean anything.”
She thinks the city’s newspapers and TV are completely lacking in taste and style. Of over 40 theatres ony two -- the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center (geared to modern theater) and Yi Fu (specializing in traditional opera) -- have clear identities. The others lack direction and artistic vision. “They are building so many theaters but they don't know how to put on a program.“
This will become even more apparent with the World Expo, in 2010. “Shanghai is expecting millions of visitors but how will they fill their evenings?” Jin Xing asks rhetorically. “Karaoke? People coming to China want to see original productions.”
Culture in Shanghai has suffered from excessive censorship and control. Today, artistic creativity is sandwiched between the weight of China's cultural tradition on the one hand and propaganda on the other. The government needs to learn how to seperate these things. “I have nothing against propoganda,” Jin Xing insists, “and traditional culture must be preserved, but you need to leave space for atistic creativity. Without creativity all there is is shiny hardware and a nation of copy cats.”
Despite her frustrations, Jin Xing is commited to Shanghai. “I've decided to stay in the city for at least the next 10 to 15 years. I want to be here to see the change. Good or bad, I want to witness it. What I love about Shanghai is its potential.”

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