Sa Dingding
Since winning a BBC Award for World Music in 2008, Sa Dingding has become an international sensation. Her new album, “Harmony,” is topping the iTunes chart, and she will be performing two concerts at the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The diva talks to Penny Zhou about being a rebel, a musician and a Buddhist.
From age three to six I lived in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, with my grandma. It isn’t as primitive as people imagine it to be. There are just less buildings and much more nature.
Sa is a common surname in Mongolia. Dingding is the nickname my grandma gave me. It means “the best.”
My father is a civil servant and my mother is a doctor. Neither of them really sing. When they do, it sounds a bit out of tune.
My childhood dream was to be a doctor or teacher, not a singer. But eventually fate put me on stage to be a singer.
I went to the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Arts, where I studied pop vocal music.