Trained in Beijing Dance Institute of China, Hai Ying joined SDT in 1993 and had taken on principal roles in many SDT productions including Anna Karenina, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, The Red Shoes, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Sylphide and Madame Butterfly. She has also worked with many world renowned choreographers and took on lead roles in George Balanchine's Who Cares?, Jiri Kylian's Forgotten Land , Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen , Nacho Duato's Jardi Tancat, Stanton Welch's Maninya, many of Goh Choo San's works, Marie-Claude Pietragalla's Les Noces and Rite of Spring. In 1991, she won the first prize in Tao Li Cup Dance Competition of China and the Grand Prix Prize at the 7th Asia Pacific International Ballet Competition in 1999. She was also nominated for Benois de La Danse Prix 2003 and performed at the Gala at Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow and guest performed with Queensland Ballet in 2000 and 2005. Nominated ‘Most Interesting Overseas Artist' in an Australian's Critics Survey by Dance Australia magazine in 2005 and ‘Most Outstanding Dancer' by Dance Australia magazine in 2006, she received the Singapore Young Artist Award, conferred by President S.R Nathan in 2008.