Dancer fights to preserve, promote traditional style

Yang said the problem of preserving this cultural legacy is not so much a matter of funding. She said the bigger issue is that a scientific training system is seldom applied to cultural and art education in China.

"The ballet is actually a European folk dance with a strict and scientific training system, which many domestic dancing schools are using to train Chinese folk dance performers," she said.

She called for more people, especially the young generations, to pay attention to Chinese traditional arts, as it would be "a pity to lose the individuality of a style and culture".

Last year, Yang started a worldwide tour of the dance drama Peacock, sponsored by the BMW Master Hall program.

Launched in 2012, the program has been sponsoring the world's most influential artists of opera, jazz music, dance and contemporary arts, with the aims of promoting the high art in China and increasing international cultural exchanges.

The show, which cost her a year to compose, encapsulates not only the essence of her 40 years on stage but also innovative elements. It features universal themes of nature, life and love, but it also has "a creative form different from simply ballet or any other kind of dance".

"The idea behind the show is creativity," she explained. "We, as the descendants of an ethnic group, will carry on our traditions. But traditions should never stop developing, and we will create our own tradition for the future generations.

"Every time I stand on stage, I am excited, because the show is a result of my understanding of dance and life over all these years."

The show has been extended to the next year, so "you have to be patient and wait quite a while before you can't see me on the stage", the 55-year old artist joked.

But even if she quits the stage one day, she will go on promoting traditional culture and art as a teacher or choreographer.

"I will still have a lot of work to do," she said. "I will dig deeper in our traditional culture to seek more valuable things."