Remembering a dance queen

Before she died, Dai was still active and helped young dancers of the National Ballet of China rehearse.

"She used to spend her own money to take the Western dancers to eat Peking Duck and tour Beijing. She wanted them to fall in love with Chinese culture and stay here to teach Chinese dancers," says Feng.

Feng Shuangbai, chairman of the Chinese Dancers' Association, says she always impressed people with her sweet smile and narrowed eyes. People could easily see her joy from her smile.

However, Dai's life was not always happy.

Dai, who died in 2006 at the age of 90, was born into a rich business family, which later fell on hard times because of her father's gambling habit.

She learned ballet at 7, and at 14, her mother sent her to London to receive ballet training from Anton Dolin, Dame Marie Rambert, Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman.

She was always interested in Chinese culture though she did not speak any Chinese.

After Japan launched its aggression against China in 1937, Dai took part in benefit performances organized by the China Campaign Committee in London to raise funds for the Hong Kong-based China Defence League, headed by Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Sun Yat-sen. She then decided to move to China.

With the help of Soong, Dai arrived in Hong Kong in 1940 and soon fell in love with noted painter Ye Qianyu (1907-95).

She married him in 1940, but became infertile following an illness.