Ai Jing (; born 10 September 1969) is a Chinese singer, actress and painter. China's ''Northeast News'' called her "China's most talented female folk rock singer." Ai was born into a musical family in

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: her father played several instruments, and her mother was a '' Pingju'' singer. She attended the Shenyang Special School of Art, joined the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe () in Beijing at age 18, and first gained widespread attention with her 1992 song " My 1997" (). A semi-autobiographical ballad that has been compared to Cui Jian's " Nothing to My Name" in terms of its social impact, the song tells about her love for a man living in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and how she eagerly awaits the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China so she can visit him. After "My 1997", she performed throughout

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

for several years. The music video for her 1993 "Wandering Swallow" () won the Chunlan Cup MTV Convention. Nimrod Baranovitch describes Ai as one of China's first "independent, free, active, dynamic, perhaps even rebellious" female pop stars". She is also known for having written and produced much of her own music, in a time when few Chinese artists were doing so. Much of her music defied stylistic rules and incorporated Western folk and rock styles.Baranovitch 2003, 165–6. But after her early albums, Baranovitch claims, Ai's popularity decreased as her themes became more "personal and nonconformist",Baranovitch 2003, p. 169. and she faced "antagonism" from men within the music industry because she did not sexually objectify herself and because her introduction of new musical styles challenged the male-dominated industry. Ai moved to New York in 1997, and since then has mostly lived in the United States, although she recorded her 2003 album ''Is it a Dream?'' () in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In the late 1990s Ai switched her focus to painting, and had her first professional exhibition in 2008. She has also acted in three films: '' Five Girls and a Rope'' (五个女子和一根绳子; 1991), '' Beijing Bastards'' (北京杂种; 1993), and '' From the Queen to the Chief Executive'' (等候董建华发落; 2001).

Discography

References