 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Mao's Last Dancer
By Li Cunxin
Viking, 445pp, $29.95
 Born in 1961 to a dirt-poor but proud family in a village near the north-eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, Li Cunxin was chosen by Fate at the age of 11. He was busy memorising Chairman Mao's sayings when the school headmaster entered the classroom with four 'dignified-looking people' - talent scouts from the Beijing arts academy that came under the authority of Mao's much-feared wife.
They were seeking likely candidates to study, of all things, ballet, a performing art they hoped would further the cultural aims of the revolution. After selecting a girl 'with big eyes, straight teeth and a pretty face,' they were about to leave when a teacher tapped one of them on the shoulder, pointed at Li and asked, 'What about that one?'
Eight years (and 300 pages of this book) later, by which time Li had become a leading ballet dancer and staged a Nuryev-like defection to the West, his family was visited by furious officials seeking an explanation for his wish to live in 'filthy America'.
In a spirited response, his mother said, 'How could you blame me? You, the government, took my innocent son away! From the age of eleven you were responsible for his upbringing. Now, you are asking me what I have done? You have lost my son. You are responsible.'
Li Cunxin's seven years of living and training at the Beijing academy paid off, thanks in part to his political loyalty - he became a young member of the Red Guards - and he came to excel in his field.
'You're Chairman and Madame Mao's last generation of dancers,' said his revered Teacher Xiao. 'You have studied under the most strict and disciplined rules imaginable, but this will give you an edge over the others. You'll be the last dancers of the era.'
Soon, Cunxin was granted a rare exit visa to study and perform with the acclaimed Houston Ballet in Texas, a trip when he made many useful friends, including then-Vice President George Bush Snr's wife, Barbara, who took the wide-eyed teenager on a tour of the White House.
Invited to return to Houston, he was refused permission, but eventually left China and chose not to return, at least until political times changed.
Now married to Australian dancer Mary McKendry and living in Melbourne, where he has a new career as a financial analyst, Li Cunxin will participate in the Byron Bay Writers Festival this weekend.
- Thanks to Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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