Jin Xing

Jin Xing (; ; born 13 August 1967) is a Chinese dancer and TV personality. The most prominent openly transgender public figure in China,

Early life

Jin was born in 1967 in Shenyang, China,

Jin attended a Korean-language elementary school for Chosonjok Chinese. When young, she participated in abacus competitions and won multiple contests. Passionate about dance, she joined the People’s Liberation Army at the age of nine to receive dance and military training with a troupe affiliated with the Shenyang Military Region. Following her graduation, she returned to the Shenyang military dance troupe and attained the rank of colonel. She later won a national dance competition with a Central Asian ethnic dance performance.

In 1989, Jin moved to New York on a scholarship to study modern dance for four years, training under pioneers such as Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham.

Career

Dance After her studies in New York, Jin traveled and performed in Europe, and taught dance in Rome and Belgium, followed by a world tour. She returned to China in 1993 and became one of the first in the country to undergo sex reassignment surgery in 1995. Her left leg was paralyzed for three months after the surgery.

Jin's dancing works are described by the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture as "startlingly original and provocative." These include The Imperial Concubine Has Been Drunk for Ages (Guifei zui jiu, an adaptation of the famous Peking opera title) and Cross Border–Crossing the Line (Cong dong dao xi, a collaboration with British pianist Joanna MacGregor).

Film and television Her film debut was in the Korean movie Resurrection of the Little Match Girl in 2002. In 2005, she appeared in the Thai movie Tom-Yum-Goong as the villain Madame Rose.

In 2013, she began her television career as a judge on China's first season of So You Think You Can Dance.

Jin hosted The Jin Xing Show on Dragon TV between 2015 and 2017. According to Vivian Wang and Joy Dong of The New York Times, Jin "bristles at being called a conservative. If she were a male chauvinist, she said, she would have continued living as a man." She has also advocated against gender discrimination in employment.

Personal life When Jin was six years old, she went outside during a storm, hoping that "lightning would strike and transform her into a girl". in Beijing. She married her German husband Heinz Gerd Oidtmann in 2005. She currently lives with her husband and children in Shanghai.

In addition to her native Chinese and Korean, she can speak English, Japanese, Italian, and French. Jin has been referred to as "China's Oprah Winfrey" by numerous Western media sources.

Filmography Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002) Tom-Yum-Goong (2005) Birth of the Dragon (2016)