Chinese dance is a riot of identities – court, folk, ethnic and dynastic. It has a glorious history and is a topic on its own. It draws inspiration from martial arts and “the art of sex” as the quintessential man of letters and leisure Li Yu wrote: “When people teach girls to sing and dance, they do not really teach them how to sing and dance but how to be sensual. If you want her body to be so, then you must have her dance.” Several legendary sensual dancers rose to be Senior Consorts and Empresses during the Han (206 bc–ad 220) and Tang (618–960) dynasties. Yang Yuhuan, the most beautiful woman in Chinese history, was a sensual dancer. She captivated the Tang emperor Xianzong (685–762), became his favourite consort and came to shape Chinese history. The splendid history of court dance, like Chinese dance itself, waits to be researched. Chinese dance absorbed its properties and values from many cultures, especially Central Asia, during the Han and Tang dynasties. This pattern of assimilation continued as the Mongols conquered China in 1279 and the Manchus in 1644. It developed rapidly after the Opium War (1839–42)when China began to have direct intercourse with the world beyond greater Asia. This exposure not only dramatically changed China's history but also the very fibre of Chinese culture. Dance in the form of ballet is a great example of such cultural change.