Wen Hui (, born 1960) is a Chinese dancer and choreographer. She co-founded the Living Dance Studio in Beijing, ChinaâÂÂs first independent dance theatre company.
Wen Hui was born in 1960 in the province Yunnan, Southwest China. She attended Yunnan Art School with her brother.
During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, Wen studied Chinese folk dance and dances for the revolutionary operas, known as yangbanxi (). Wen studied at the Department of Choreography of the Beijing Dance Academy from 1985 to 1989.After graduating, Wen was appointed as a choreographer at the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble of China (). When she produced a jazz dance for the Dong-fang Ensemble, her work was immediately taken off the programme.
In 1997, Wen studied modern dance in New York with funding from the Asian Cultural Council. After Wen returned to China, in 1994 she and Chinese filmmaker Wu Wenguang co-founded the Living Dance Studio (LDS) in Beijing, which was ChinaâÂÂs first independent dance theatre company. The studios first production was called 100 Verbs. Wen and Wu also co-curated the first âÂÂCrossingâ International Dance Festival in Beijing and established The European Artists Exchange Project and Young Choreographers Project in 2005.
From 1999 to 2000, Wen performed with American contemporary choreographer Ralph LemonâÂÂs dance company in the United States. In 1999, she produced Report on Giving Birth, based on interviews conducted with women about their experience of childbirth. The work was revived 25 years after the initial production at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, France.
In 2001, Wen premiered Dance with Farm Workers () at the East Modern Art Centre, featuring both professional dancers and migrant workers in the piece. The show has also been performed in the Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy.
In 2004, Wen's piece Report on Body won the ZKB Patronage Prize of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel in Zurich, Switzerland.
From 2008, Wen's Living Dance Studio productions focused on topics of history and bodily memory. In 2015, Wen curated the ReActor Project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai. Her 2018 production Red was inspired by the Cultural Revolution era Red Detachment of Women (ballet).
Wen was awarded the German Goethe Medal in 2021. That year she presented the solo work I am 60 at the Festival dâÂÂAutomne in Paris, France, and at the Ruhrtriennale in Ruhr, Germany.
In 2024, Wen performed in What Is War with Eiko Otake, which explored memories of China and Japan in World War II.
In 2025, Wen choreographed I Dance for You, a piece about her family's experiences during the Cultural Revolution.