Ai Jing

Ai Jing (; born 10 September 1969 ) is a Chinese singer, actress and painter. China's Northeast News called her "China's most talented female folk rock singer."

Ai was born into a musical family in Shenyang, Liaoning: her father played several instruments, and her mother was a Pingju singer. She attended the Shenyang Special School of Art, joined the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe in Beijing at age 18, and first gained widespread attention with her 1992 song "My 1997" . A semi-autobiographical ballad the song tells about her love for a man living in Hong Kong, and how she eagerly awaits the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China so she can visit him. She is also known for having written and produced much of her own music, in a time when few Chinese artists were doing so. But after her early albums, Baranovitch claims, Ai's popularity decreased as her themes became more "personal and nonconformist", and she faced "antagonism" from men within the music industry because she did not sexually objectify herself and because her introduction of new musical styles challenged the male-dominated industry. In the late 1990s Ai switched her focus to painting, and had her first professional exhibition in 2008. She has also acted in three films: Five Girls and a Rope (五个女子和一根绳子; 1991), Beijing Bastards (北京杂种; 1993), and From the Queen to the Chief Executive (等候董建华发落; 2001).

Discography