Jin Xing is a former prima ballerina, one of the brightest stars of the Shanghai Ballet. 聽But her journey to her international fame has been fraught with difficulty because Jin Xing was in fact born a man. 聽From an early age she was intensely uncomfortable with her gender. 聽Unable to understand or put words to her feelings, she immersed herself in ballet dancing, her first love. 聽Aged 9, she joined the Peoples Liberation army, where she received both dance and military training and attained the rank of Colonel. 聽The curtains opened on a new act in her life when, at the age of 19, she received a scholarship to study dance in New York.
It was there that she discovered for the first time that it was possible to change sex, in an instant, what had been a province of dreams became a real opportunity. 聽She took the courageous decision to return to China to face the authorities, quit the army, and confront the world with her decision to become a woman.

As dramatic and graceful and deeply felt as a pad deux, Shanghai Tango is a deeply personal and inspiring account of growing up in a body that feels alien and of braving pioneering surgery in communist China.