Paris, May 2026 – She is one of the most singular figures on the global artistic scene. Former colonel in the Chinese army, ACC alumni from the 1988 cohort, pioneer of contemporary dance in China, media personality with a massive following, the first person in her country to undergo gender reassignment surgery, Jin Xing takes the stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées this July to play Ranevskaya in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Three exceptional performances. In Paris, where she lives today.

The choice carries an obvious coherence: Ranevskaya, the play's central character, watches helplessly as her estate and cherry orchard are lost. Her refuge? Paris. For Jin Xing, this parallel is not a mere dramatic coincidence, but a lived reality. In choosing Paris as her place of expression, Jin Xing reminds us that the City of Light remains, even today, a sanctuary for artists whose voice is constrained elsewhere.

The production is led by the Mars Theatre Group of Shanghai, and is built on the staging conceived by the great Rimas Tuminas — a towering figure of European theatre, who passed away in March 2024 while completing this work, which stands as his artistic testament. The play is performed in Chinese, with French and English surtitles.

What Paris will witness in July is a rare event: Chekhov filtered through a Chinese company, on one of the capital's foremost stages, in the final work of a leading European director — brought to life by an artist whose personal journey is, in itself, a story unlike any other.