Her unrestrained laughter is loud and sharp. Her lively eyes seldom stop for a second and her face is animated as her words bubble forth, just like other kids her age.
Off stage, Jiang's mischievous behavior is no different from that of the other students in this amateur Latin dance class in a basement dance studio in downtown Xi'an, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
But as soon as she steps on the stage, she becomes something different - for a special reason - she is deaf.
No one but Jiang can know just how the melody comes through to her when she dances wearing her hearing aid. The limited effectiveness of her hearing aid not only means that she has trouble understanding what people say, but she also cannot hear the music as clearly as the other children.
But she joins in, swinging to the Latin melody with occasional childish gestures like wrinkling up her nose or sticking out her tongue at her mother, Wang Yun, who anxiously helps her correct her movements.
Even though she had only been in the advanced dance class for a week, that didn't stop her from picking up the Latin rhythm - one-two, cha-cha-cha, one-two, cha-cha-cha...
"She has a feeling for dance; maybe it's a special talent given by God," said her father Jiang Xiaoman, a middle-aged businessman.
"Maybe that is the compensation God has given her."
With that talent, Jiang Xinrou has been dancing for several years since losing most of her hearing as a result of a botched surgical operation when she was just 8 months old.
Her dancing ability won her a national title in her age group in an amateur dancing competition and a solo part in a dance show in a concert for the Miss World pageant last year in the city.
Watching Jiang's performance from her seat in the audience, Wang, the heroine behind her daughter's success, was suddenly overcome with grief, and her daughter, who was being interviewed by the concert hostess on the stage began to wail when she saw her mother crying.
"She hated my crying," Wang said with a dry smile.
"She always wants to be happy and doesn't like to see sad scenes.
"She even asked me 'why are they crying' when she saw some people in tears, and she so pressed me for an answer that I had to tell her."
But Wang knows Jiang is too young to realize that she is different from others and that sadness could fill her daughter's life at any moment.
Her eyes suddenly filled with melancholy as she saw Jiang gesture to her because she could not hear the instructions of the teacher.
"I want her to be an ordinary kid, not someone who is 'special'," Wang said.
She has been trying hard to protect her daughter from the sting of being different.
She taught Jiang everything including lip reading and sent her to regular primary school instead of a special school for disabled children.
And definitely, letting Jiang learn dancing is one of her ways of helping her daughter feel normal.
"I hope dancing gives her a chance to live like normal people," Wang said, expressing her hopes that dancing will be a career option when she grows up.
But it is so hard to predict how far Jiang can go with her dancing, even for her teacher, Li Baoqiang, a Latin dance expert from Xi'an Music and Dance University.
"No doubt, Jiang has to work much harder than the others while learning how to dance," Li said.
"I don't pay extra attention to her and I treat her just like the others.
"I would like her to follow her nature."
In Li's eyes, to be a successful dancer needs more than just hard work.
"It is too early to set a road for her. So just continue, hang in, and see what happens in the future," he said.
"Anyway, I think she has some fine artistic qualities," Li added.
Regardless of an uncertain future, Wang hopes dancing can continue to be a way for Jiang to feel good about herself.
"For now, I just want her to be happy," Wang said.
"And I want myself to be happy again, for me and for her."
But that is difficult because a tiny negative change in Jiang's mood can break her heart.
Wang once found that her daughter didn't want to go outside to face the curious gaze of others, especially the way they looked at her unusual hearing aid.
"She was silent every time she came back from outside," Wang said.
"Then she kept asking me 'why do people stare at me on the street,' and I said 'because you are so beautiful'."
Wang could feel the disbelief in her daughter's eyes.
She does not know how much longer she can use that kind of answer.
"I really have no idea how to answer her as she grows up," said Wang, looking perplexed as she watched Jiang chasing a ball with other kids during a class break.
However, Jiang has a strong spirit and also has a dream.
"I want to be World Miss in the future, to be as beautiful and smart as they are," Jiang said happily in her unclear voice after the concert.
"I will not let my mother down."
But she has so much to conquer.
Jiang suddenly became impatient when her mother repeatedly asked her to correct her speech when she was asking for pizza, her favorite food, after class one day. Jiang frowned and refused to talk.
But if anyone is up for the challenge, it's Jiang.
(China Daily February 11, 2004)
