change – Colonel Jin Xing is halfway

Yesterday the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club organized a viewing of the beautiful documentary ‘Colonel Jin Xing, a unique destiny’. Jin Xing, China’s first transsexual, started a dancing career in the troupe of the People's Liberation Army and is now Shanghai’s most famous dancer and choreographer. She is widely praised by the Chinese media, who do avoid not mention she changed gender halfway her career.
Jin Xing (33) just flew back from Switzerland. The way she had changed over de past few years was the most amazing discovery I made that evening. During an earlier viewing a few years ago, it was not clear whether she would actually mingle with the crowd, because she did not feel at ease at all. She did in the end, but was very shy and as far as I remember she did not say that much.
How different was that yesterday. She joined a heated discussion we had while we were waiting for a second viewing, spoke perfect English and described how the different media focus on different issues. The American media always want to talk about politics, she said, and the Asian media on whom she is dating.
Later, after the first viewing, she took the stage and was even more outspoken in her statements, describing how in China people hopelessly confused being gay and a transsexual and how she refused to join the American minorities politics. By labeling people according to their sexual preferences also life in China has lost much of its innocence, she said.
In a next phase of her life, when she was in her 50s, she would probably make a good TV-host, being able to share her experiences with many more other people. She certainly needs a bigger stage than we could offer her with the 50+ people in Shanghai.