China has fascinated Westerners for centuries. Next month, when it hosts the Olympic Games, the world will be watching its every move. Seven of the city's foremost creative talents, from a novelist to a techno queen, tell us about the excitement - and the dangers - of working in a city where hardline communism and rampant capitalism fight to exist side by side

Money's tight, crowds are small and everything has to get past the censor. Yet modern dance is catching on in China. By Judith Mackrell