Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication PART ONE - MY CHILDHOOD Chapter 1 - HOME Chapter 2 - MY NIANG AND DIA Chapter 3 - A COMMUNE CHILDHOOD Chapter 4 - THE SEVEN OF US Chapter 5 - NA-NA Chapter 6 - CHAIRMAN MAO''S CLASSROOM Chapter 7 - LEAVING HOME PART TWO - BEIJING Chapter 8 - FEATHER IN A WHIRLWIND Chapter 9 - THE CAGED BIRD Chapter 10 - THAT FIRST LONELY YEAR Chapter 11 - THE PEN Chapter 12 - MY OWN VOICE Chapter 13 - TEACHER XIAO''S WORDS Chapter 14 - TURNING POINTS Chapter 15 - THE MANGO Chapter 16 - CHANGE Chapter 17 - ON THE WAY TO THE WEST Chapter 18 - THE FILTHY CAPITALIST AMERICA Chapter 19 - GOOD-BYE, CHINA PART THREE - THE WEST Chapter 20 - RETURN TO THE LAND OF FREEDOM Chapter 21 - ELIZABETH Chapter 22 - DEFECTION Chapter 23 - MY NEW LIFE Chapter 24 - A MILLET DREAM COME TRUE Chapter 25 - NO MORE NIGHTMARES Chapter 26 - RUSSIA Chapter 27 - MARY Chapter 28 - GOING HOME Chapter 29 - BACK IN MY VILLAGE Chapter 30 - ANOTHER WEDDING AFTERWORD TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION PART FOUR - MY STORY CONTINUES Chapter 31 - KEEPING HEARTS WARM Chapter 32 - "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE" Chapter 33 - PAPER WISHES Acknowledgements DISCUSSION GUIDE PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS ABOUT THE AUTHOR "Li''s well-paced account of the ensuing cloak-and-dagger episodes that lead to his defection to the West adds suspense to a tale already full of adventures, but there are no conventional bad guys to be found in it. Indeed, he writes with fine compassion for the Chinese consul who attempts to dissuade him from becoming an outcast: ''unlike me, he had to go back and would probably never manage to get out again.'' Nicely written and humane: for anyone interested in modern Chinese history or for fans of dance." --Kirkus Reviews "Honest and refreshing." --Adeline Yen Mah , author of Falling Leaves "A moving, true story of family love and a boy''s great courage on his journey from terrible poverty to the world stage--one of the books of the year." --Women''s Weekly (Australia) "It is in large part this book''s resemblance to good fiction that renders it so readable. The scene in the Chinese consulate after Cunxin defects is fraught with real menace, charged with potential for violence and even international incident, and could hardly be better described . a crackling yarn.
" --The Sunday Independent (Ireland) "Li Cunxin has written a remarkable book about his own remarkable journey. It is really about the nature of family love, courage, and obsession. Mao''s Last Dancer is told with simplicity, but Li''s style is deceptive. It takes skill to write simply, just as it takes years of backbreaking work to make ballet look elegant and effortless." --The Sydney Morning Herald "Very evocative." --Financial Times "Remarkable." --The Sunday Telegraph (London) "His autobiography traces profound political change, from the disastrous results of Mao''s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s to China''s gradual opening after 1978, under new paramount leader Deng Xiaoping." --Gold Coast Bulletin (Australia) "Anything but boring.
" --Houston Press " Mao''s Last Dancer is not a typical dancer''s story. Yes, Li triumphs over physical pain. More important, he illustrates the sustaining power of deep cultural roots and enduring familial love. Evoking a vivid sense of life''s evolution in communist China and the stark contrast of Western society, he also crosses chasms of the heart. And while Mao''s Last Dancer is not a self-improvement book, Li''s courage and perseverance ultimately make his story more inspiring than a dozen tomes by the likes of Dr. Phil." --Houston Chronicle "His story will appeal to an audience beyond Sinophiles and ballet aficionados." --Publishers Weekly "He is an expert storyteller, and his memoir--which includes his struggles to perfect his art in the tense political framework, the complex events surrounding his defection, and the heart-breaks and joys of his professional and personal lives--makes for fascinating reading.
The portions dealing with his childhood and loving family in Qingdao are especially poignant, and the work as a whole unfolds with honesty, humor, and a quiet dignity. This book has wide appeal, for it concerns not only a dancer''s coming-of-age in a turbulent time but also individual strength, self-discovery, and the triumph of the human spirit." --Library Journal THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen''s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty.
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Copyright © 2003, 2009 Li Cunxin Readers Guide copyright © 2010 Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Quotations in chapters 6 and 7 are from the songs "I Love Beijing Tiananmen" and "We Love Chairman Mao" (author''s own translation). A list of photo credits and permissions appears on the Photographic Credits page. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author''s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The "B" design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. ISBN: 9781101458778 Li, Cunxin, date. Mao''s last dancer / Li Cunxin. p. cm. ISBN: 9781101458778 1. Li, Cunxin, date. 2.
Ballet dancers--China--Biography. 3. Defectors--China--Biography. I. Title. GV1785.L475A3 2004 2003047199 792.8''092--dc21 [B] To the two special women in my life--my mother and my wife A WEDDING QINGDAO, 1946 O n the day of her marriage, a young girl sits alone in her village home.
It is autumn, a beautiful October morning. The country air is cool but fresh. The young girl hears happy music approaching her house. She is only eighteen, and she is nervous, frightened. She knows that many marriage introducers simply take money and tell lies. Some women from her village marry men who don''t have all their functional body parts. Those women have to spend the rest of their lives looking after their husbands. Wife beating is common.
Divorce is out of the question. Divorced women are humiliated, despised, suffering worse than an animal''s fate. She knows some women hang themselves instead, and she prays this is not going to be her fate. She prays to a kind and merciful god that her future husband will have two legs, two arms, two eyes and two ears. She prays that his body parts are normal and functional. She worries that he will not be kindhearted and will not like her. But most of all she worries about her unbound feet. Bound feet are still in fashion.
Little girls as young as five or six have to tuck four toes under the big toe and squeeze them hard to stop the growth. It is extremely painful, and the girls have to change the cloth bandages and wash their feet daily to avoid infection. The tighter the feet are bound the smaller the feet will become. Eventually all five toes grow together. Infections often occur, and the girls are so crippled they have to walk mostly on their heels. But when this bride was about eight and her mother tried to bind her feet, two or three years later than was usual, she defied her and ran away. Her mother eventually gave up, but secretly she was pleased. A daughter with unbound feet could help do the hard chores.
But would her future husband and in-laws think the same? The groom is a young man of twenty-one. He leaves home before sunrise. Sixteen strong men are hired to carry two sedan chairs for the three-hour journey from his village to the bride''s. There are trumpets,.