| Xin Lili applying makeup | Music
| 10.00.09.03 |
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| Hutcheon: Xin Lili is a model of classical grace. After more than 17 years of dedicated practice, and relentless performance, she's the prima ballerina in a state run company. But at the height of her career, what has she got to show for it?
| 00.13 |
| Jin Xing makeup being applied | Music
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| Hutcheon: Jin Xing is all show. A dancer with an intriguing past who's taken an extremely unconventional path to prominence.
| 00.38 |
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| Hutcheon: Far from state run, she's self made, breathing new life into an old art.
| 00.53 |
| Xin Lili at barre | This is the story of a struggling ballerina who toes the company line, and the breakaway who's taking it all. Like so much in China, the entrepreneurial spirit is dramatically changing the face of the performing arts.
| 01.04 |
| Map China | Music
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| Photos of Xin Lili | Hutcheon: At the age of ten, when China was still in the grip of the Cultural Revolution, Xin Lili was picked from among thousands of hopefuls to train at the prestigious Shanghai Dance School.
| 01.33 |
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| Xin Lili: Our childhood was really hard. We were always in pain after practice. If someone cried, the teacher would throw them out of class. They didn't allow you to cry. There were ten kids in my class -- tears were in our eyes, but no one dared to cry.
| 01.45 |
| Photo of Xin Lili performing | Music
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| Hutcheon: It may have been tough, but at a time when the ballet company was well-resourced and highly regarded, the pain and hard work offered a promising future and national status.
| 02.15 |
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| Hutcheon with Jin Xing | Jin Xing: I would like to make a really contemporary military dance.
| 02.34 |
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| Hutcheon: In northern China, meanwhile this woman's dance career was never going to be conventional. To begin with, Jin Xing was born and raised a male.
| 02.38 |
| Photos of Jin Xing as child | Jin Xing: I had the idea when I was six years old. When I was very young once, I played with my sister, I had a three years older sister. Then she was strong and we played around, but I was thinking, we two, we should switch, I should be her, she should be me. Then I just imagine, one night in heavy, you know, pouring rain night, I was standing outside, the lightening would come and change me completely. It would be wonderful.
| 02.50 |
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| Hutcheon: So that was when you were in the military kindergarten...
| 03.20 |
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| Hutcheon: Like many of China's best classical performers, Jin Xing was handpicked by the People's Liberation Army and trained as a soldier performer. Throughout, Jin Xing's passion for dance remains strong. But the need to become a woman was stronger still.
| 03.23 |
| Jin Xing interview | Jin Xing: I got thinking, I should be myself, complete from inside and outside too, to be a lady, woman.
| 03.43 |
| Plastic surgeon greets Jin Xing | Hutcheon: Incredibly her will prevailed, and in a first for this plastic surgeon, a series of three painful operations in 1995 transformed him into her - China's first sex change.
| 03.56 |
| Jin Xing | Jin Xing: The government didn't give me some hard time. They keep silent. I think their attitude more keep her silent.
| 04.16 |
| Glamour photo of Jin Xing/Performance of Red & Black | Hutcheon: Beyond the breakthrough surgery, Jin Xing broke through professionally as well, as the artistic director and lead dancer in the government run Beijing Modern Dance Ensemble.
| 04.32 |
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| Hutcheon: She's cast aside a mountain of obstacles. Authorities feared this production carried political overtones, because of its title, Black & Red. But Jin Xing won them over. And went on to win China's highest award for choreography.
| 04.48 |
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| With the critical acclaim came a new artistic and financial freedom. She was given a contract to manage the government ensemble as a private company.
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| Jin Xing | Jin Xing: I'm in charge of artistic creation, all the management, everything. Find finance, I have to support myself. I don't get any sponsor from the government, at the end of the year, half year, after six months, I have one hundred thousand renminbee to the government.
| 05.28 |
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| Hutcheon: So you give the government 40,000 Australian dollars a year. You give them that money to leave you alone?
| 05.46 |
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| Jin Xing: Yeah. Not completely leave you alone. Before a performance I still find a polite way to invite them. Can you come to see exam? They love to hear that, when I examine things. But most of the time they leave me alone.
| 05.50 |
| Jin Xing applying makeup | Singing
| 06.05 |
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| Hutcheon: To keep the ensemble running and to fund new productions, Jin Xing uses her unique circumstances to attract new sponsors.
| 06.11 |
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| Jin Xing at China Club | Hutcheon: Tonight she's a guest at Beijing's stylish China Club - an Italian fashion label trying to crack the market here. It's a quid pro quo. The fashion house wants to be seen with Beijing's trendsetting transsexual, and Jin Xing is keen to ride the wave of international business sponsorship.
| 06.29 |
| Xin Lili applying makeup in hotel room | On tour in the northern city of Dalian, the star of the Shanghai government's ballet troupe prepares for another performance.
| 07.09 |
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| Despite being a prima ballerina, she draws a paltry pay of $500 a month, shares a pokey hotel room, and applies her own make-up. Times have never been tougher.
| 07.18 |
| Xin Lili | Xin Lili: In the past, salaries for the ballet troupe were completely provided by the Cultural Bureau or the government. But now, the Cultural Bureau doesn't provide all our money. For example, if they give you a million yuan a year but the annual expenditure is two million the extra million has to come from other businesses within the troupe or from ticket sales.
| 07.33 |
| Xin Lili on bus | Hutcheon: To make ends meet, the troupe performs at the high profile opening ceremony of Dalian city's tenth annual Fashion Festival, an event that will bring a small fee to supplement each dancer's pay packet.
| 08.05 |
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| The bus to the stadium is well behind schedule, so the dancers dress as they go. And finally, with no time to spare, they're on.
| 08.22 |
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| They only just make it, for an opening ceremony to rival the Olympic Games.
| 08.38 |
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| Hutcheon: Xin Lili and her partner take centre stage. But their performance attracts little attention.
| 09.00 |
| Ricky Martin singing in stadium | Music
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| Hutcheon: The audience is far more interested in visiting pop stars.
| 09.13 |
| Xin Lili interview | Xin Lili: I feel it's a pity about our troupe. It used to be a good one - as good as the Central Ballet Troupe. But now our members have become less and less - a lot of people have left.
| 09.22 |
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| Hutcheon: it's payday as the Shanghai Troupe returns home, a sombre affair.
| 09.42 |
| Dancers discussing pay | Dancer 1: I only have about $200.
Dancer 2: That's impossible.,
| 09.48
09.49 |
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| Money is a constant concern, as the dancers see their own incomes shrink compared with what their friends bring home. And yet the work, the rehearsals, never stop.
| 09.55 |
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| Rehearsals | Hutcheon: Today the troupe prepares for Romeo and Juliet, Xin Lili will play the lead as she's done at least six times before. But she's not complaining.
| 10.19 |
| Performance of White Haired Girl | Music
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| Hutcheon: Here she plays the White Haired Girl, a propaganda piece devised during the early days of the People's Republic, when a struggle was waged against money grabbing landlords. The Shanghai Ballet still clings to its worn out repertoire. Xin Lili has played the White Haired Girl more than 100 times.
| 10.44 |
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| Xin Lili: Yes, I feel bored. It's very difficult to get a good piece to dance | 11.06 |
| Xin Lili | and it's hard for our troupe because of the money shortage. We choreographed a new ballet last year - called "Liang Shang Bop Zhu Ying Tai" which cost us 1.3 million yuan. The response was far from warm. The audience said it wasn't a good ballet.
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| Jin Xing preparing for performance | Hutcheon: Jin Xing on the other hand is no slave to repeat performances. As long as she stays clear of politics, she's free to choreograph what she likes.
| 11.32 |
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| In her latest work, she plays a drunken concubine from Peking Opera. Jin Xing's own special circumstance brings a double twist to the role. Traditional opera had a man playing the female part. | 11.48 |
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| Her character loses herself in a world of confusion where old and new China collide.
| 12.05 |
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| Jin Xing: We're always talking about what we have, how rich a culture we have, 5,000 years, but now we are living in a modern century. The Chinese are getting confused, a lot of confusion. A lot of desire. | 12.17 |
| Jin Xing | People are thinking from their own point of view, what I can get, what I can be, how I can push my life. That's a different attitude from before.
| 12.34 |
| Building site of bar | Hutcheon: That attitude has pushed her from strength to strength. She's building a bar, seating 200, where she plays manageress and takes centre stage as well.
| 12.48 |
| Jin Xing | Jin Xing: I have so many friends in Beijing, they always say I'm the perfect person to open a bar. You know, every weekend, Friday, Saturday, either I'm dancing here or I'm singing here, that's the purpose for opening a bar.
| 13.04 |
| Xin Lili arrives at door | Hutcheon: Xin Lili lives with her parents in her government apartment. She'll stay with the Shanghai Ballet until she retires, drawing the same $500 a month and her free medical treatment.
| 13.29 |
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| Most of her colleagues have already jumped ship, but she remains committed to the company, and an uncertain future.
| 13.51 |
| Xin Lili | Hutcheon: If you knew before what you know now, would your life have taken a different path?
| 14.02 |
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| Xin Lili: I probably would have left the troupe by now... but I think it's too late for me to leave now. I helped set up this troupe when I was 17. A group of dancers made a great contribution to this company and now we can see that the troupe has gradually become worse and worse. I learned to much ballet during my childhood and not other skills. I don't know what I am going to do.
| 14.08 |
| Half Dream club | Music
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| Hutcheon: It's opening night at Jin Xing's bar, named after her first major work, Half Dream.
| 14.45 |
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| Hutcheon: Unlike the gentle ballerina, Xin Lili, Jin Xin has the resolve to roll with the punches, to fashion a future of her making.
| 15.04 |
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| In a China where fortune favours the brash, her performance may not please everyone. But in these freewheeling times, only the strongest survive.
| 15.19 |
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| FX: Applause
| ENDS 15.44 |