Hui Wen

Wen Hui (, born 1960) is a Chinese dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. She co-founded the Living Dance Studio in Beijing, China’s first independent dance theatre company.

Biography Wen Hui was born in 1960 in Dahebian, a village in Yunnan, Southwest China. After middle school, she attended Yunnan Arts University between 1974 and 1980 with her brother.

During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, Wen studied Chinese folk dance and dances for the revolutionary operas, known as yangbanxi . After graduating, Wen was appointed as a choreographer at the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble of China . When she produced a jazz dance for the Dong-fang Ensemble, her work was immediately taken off the programme.

In 1997, Wen studied modern dance in New York with funding from the Asian Cultural Council. In 1994, after Wen returned to China, co-founded the Living Dance Studio (LDS) in Beijing, which was China’s first independent dance theatre company. and established The European Artists Exchange Project and Young Choreographers Project in 2005.

From 1999 to 2000, Wen performed with American contemporary choreographer Ralph Lemon’s dance company in the United States.

In 2001, Wen premiered Dance with Farm Workers at the East Modern Art Centre, featuring both professional dancers and migrant workers in the piece. Her 2018 production Red was inspired by the Cultural Revolution era Red Detachment of Women (ballet).

In 2011, Wen Hui conducted interviews in her home village for The Memory Project Oral History, with Wu Wenguang's Caochangdi Workstation.

Wen was awarded the German Goethe Medal in 2021.