Jin Xing / Kim Sŏng

Biography

Jin Xing was born in 1967 in Shenyang to a Korean-Chinese family and showed exceptional talent in dance and arithmetic from a young age. She joined the Shenyang Military Region Song and Dance Troupe at age nine and graduated from the PLA Academy of Arts in 1984. She pioneered male pointe dance and won first place in the Taoli Bei competition in 1985, followed by the Best Outstanding Performer award at the National Dance Competition in 1988. She received a scholarship from the Asian Cultural Council and the American Dance Festival to study modern dance in New York in 1988, becoming the first mainland Chinese artist to receive a scholarship from the American Institute of Arts. She underwent gender confirmation surgery in 1995. In 1999, she founded China's first private dance troupe, the Shanghai Jin Xing Modern Dance Troupe. She has received numerous international honors including the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France in 2012 and an honorary doctorate from Plymouth University in 2006. In television, she hosted the popular talk show "Jin Xing Collides with Mars" and her own program "The Jin Xing Show," which gained wide acclaim before being suspended in 2017.