[.ca] Maos Last Dancer (ISBN 067004024X)

Superb account of a glorious life:
When my wife and I moved to Texas in the early 1980's, the Houston Ballet's performances were a refreshing antidote to the Southwest's unrelenting commercialism and fixation with football and barbecue. Under Ben Stevenson's lively direction, this troupe of superb athletes pushed the bounds of gravity with grace and verve. Among the foremost in their number was a supple young oriental dancer who was obviously feeling his way toward familiarity with American culture, but always showed uncommon spirit, sensitivity, and vitality in his approach to movement. This was Li Cunxin (pronounced Shwin-Sin). He became our favorite male dancer, and his photos are on our walls today. This marvelous autobiography by Mr. Li opened our eyes to the unimaginable gulf he had to leap in order to appear before us. When he was plucked from among millions of other peasant children to attend Beijing Dance Academy, the train ride to Beijing was his first. His meals at the Academy were the first time he'd ever had enough to eat. His untrained tendons and muscles were ruptured repeatedly by the contortions he was forced into. Beijing's approval for him to leave China on scholarship to Houston Ballet Academy was China's first such concession to an artist in almost forty years. The first time he ever felt air-conditioning was on the plane to America. His first automobile ride was from the Houston airport to Ben Stevenson's house. And so on - the simple dance outfit purchased for him upon his arrival cost the equivalent of two years of his father's salary in China. The book contains hundreds of poignant reminders of the risks Mr. Li took in breaking the bounds of his peasant heritage and infuriating both the Chinese government and his American friends when he defected. His indomitable will to survive and succeed is an inspiration to all those who have seemingly impossible aspirations. He tells the old fable of a frog trapped deep in a well, yearning to jump out and see the world beyond but knowing it will never happen. Mr. Li made it out of his well, and became a prince among dancers. His triumphant return to China to perform Romeo and Juliet, with his wife Mary McKendry dancing as Juliet, his entire family in the audience, and half a billion Chinese watching on television, is a spine-tingling culmination to his career.

Marvelous!:
This book is wonderfully written, and once you start it, you will not be able to put it down. I know many Chinese people who grew up in China during Mao's Cultural Revolution and can relate to Li Cunxin's experiences in terms of starvation and the propaganda. Fascinating read and a real page-turner.

Heartwarming story:
Whilst this wasn't a great work of literature, the story was tender and embracing. I couldn't put it down and even on closing the book I was still left with the emotion of Li's life story.

From Yams to Beijing:
Mao's Last Dancer is the best book I've read in a while. It's a book that grabs you and pulls you into thier celebrations, and their traditions. Li Cunxin is an excellent story teller and makes you invision what is going on in his life. I would recomend this book to anyone. It's a feel good boook, you want him to do right by his family name and become someone his village to be proud of. Pick this book up, you won't be disapointed.

An amazing political story.:
It begins in 1961 .. not back in the 20's or 30's, when it would have been easier to believe such poverty was possible. Right there in the 60's, when our generation here in America was protesting and ignorantly embracing Communism! Really made me realize that it was a spoiled, selfish generation, that had no idea what oppression and lack of freedom was really like. This book removes the rose-colored glasses of what it is like to live under a totalitarian government.