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Cunxin returns to China to see his family and friends from his childhood. With his wife Mary they land in Beijing and visit the dance academy where Cunxin love for dance started. After a few days they take a plane to a small country town, Qingdao- Cunxin’s hometown to be exact! All his family was at the airport waiting for him. Brothers, sisters-in-laws, mom and dad. After attending some events and exploring the changes that had occurred around his village over the last decade, it was time for Cunxin and Mary to leave back to America.

“I looked out of the aircraft window into the darkening sky. I saw myself as a small boy, running barefoot through the commune fields. I saw myself as a Red Guard, and I saw myself once again as Mao’s Last Dancer endlessly practicing in a dim and dusty dance studio in Beijing” (438).

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Li Cunxin married Australian Ballerina Mary Mackendry.

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(#16). [Isolated section] • Wedding - Arranged marriage • 1946

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(#16). [Isolated section] • Wedding - Arranged marriage • 1946

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In the beginning of the book Cunxin talks about arranged marriage. Young girls as young at 16-18 not fully understanding the situation, are pulled out of their childhood and are aggranged to marry an older guy whom they may not have any sort of relations with. The Li family has experience with this, as most of Cunxin’s sisters-in-laws and brothers have had an arranged marriage. This often happens for the families to make money and gain extra help with domestic duties. He also talks about Bound feet, which were a fashion trend for women where four toes are tucked under the big toe and tied tight to stop the growth. Eventually all five toes would become one. Having unbounded feet meant the ability to do harder chores, that’s why Cunxin’s mom was a lot of favoritism in his family because she had more freedom to do more chores.

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Cunxin practiced hard and began taking on roles in dance performances such as the Nutcracker. Li Cunxin was also a popular performer from the company.

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With only a couple days left until he had to go back to China, Li tries to marry Elizabeth to obtain a green card to stay in America longer. When it came down to the question of if Cunxin really loved Elizabeth, he was unsure. He felt like Elizabeth was more of a close friend than a lover. After cultural differences and other issues, they divorced.

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After leaving China for the 2nd time, Cunxin is back at the Houston Ballet Company. While studying he hoped he would be able to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth, who has been practicing at Houston Ballet for awhile. He finally manages to talk to her and gets nervous. They go out to eat at a cheap Chinese restaurant. Despite not understanding each other fully because of the language barrier, they still had a good time. Elizabeth became Cunxin’s first lover.

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(#12). Goodbye, China • Welcome to America

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(#12). Goodbye, China • Welcome to America

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Cunxin goes to Texas and studies at the Houston Ballet. The agreement he made was to fly back to China in 6 weeks. Cunxin left as though he had more freedom at Houston Ballet so he wanted to stay longer. At the end of the 6 weeks he returned back to China but shortly returned to America.

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Within a couple years things only got better for Cunxin. He started doing better in class and even found that he really enjoyed his Chinese class. He was improving his ballet jumps and skills and remembering teacher Xiao’s wise words helped him through tough times. Twenty students from including Li Cunxin had been selected to attend Ben Stevenson’s classes. Ben taught at the academy and seemed to enjoy it as he had an exhilarating approach to his teaching. Soon, Ben offered the Beijing Damce Academy two scholarships for his summer school at the Huston Ballet Academy in Texas. It was the most unbelievable and shocking news Cunxin had gotten. This would give him a change to leave China and stretch his ballet skills on a a more broad scale. The two students had to nominated and final two chosen was Zheng Weiqiang and Li Cunxin.

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Through Cunxin’s challenges Teacher Xiao gave the best advice. Teacher Xiao would usually tell Cunxin a story followed by some wise words.

“Remember, Cunxin, nothing is impossible,” (211).

Cunxin showed Teacher Xiao his living situation in Qingdao and he was shocked at the poor living conditions. The shift in Cunxin living situation was vastly different and Teacher Xiao guessed Cunxin thinks about his home life a lot.

“Yes, I think about them when I’m eating—meat, fish, rice or fruit. I wish I could help them,” I replied

“You can,” Teacher Xiao said

“How?”

“By working hard and becoming the best dancer you can!” (218).

Anytime Cunxin faced an obstacle or challenge he thought back to what Teacher Xiao told him.

“That day, Teacher Xiao’s words has touched me deeply, and I knew that he cared” (219).

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(#9). Hope - Light at the End of the Tunnel

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(#9). Hope - Light at the End of the Tunnel

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He felt like no teacher liked him. He wasn’t prepared for most of the class activities because he couldn’t afford the materials. He was ashamed to tell his teachers about it. That first year he aimlessly laborers through the days. Cunxin had no self-confidence and couldn’t keep up the pace. It was too much for an eleven year old boy, being the youngest amount his class and felt the weakest. A new director has arrived at the Academy. Xiao Shuhua. Teacher Xiao was a happy man with a quick temperament. Teacher Xiao was very encouraging and was determined to help his students to the best of his abilities, perfecting each and every move.

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That first year at the Beijing Dance Academy had come to an end. Summer had arrived and it was time for Cunxin to visit his family. He counted down every minute and after the excruciatingly long last few days, he finally took the train back to Qingdao.

“Tell me, What’s Beijing like” (170) His older brother Cunyuan asked. Thinking back to his time in Beijing, is was the most luxurious experience of his life. He ate foods that he rarely saw in his days back home. Steamed vegetables and meat. No more yams. Although the room he slept in was cold, it still felt luxurious. On top of the basics, Cunxin took many trips around China. He told his brother about the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square.

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Cunxin wasn’t the only one missing home. His witnessed many tears eyes among his peers. The adults showed more tenderness for the girls than boys. They said crying was a sign of weakness, so most coped in silence. City kids adjusted to the environment better than the country kids. City kids were the beauty standard with their fair skin while country kids had darker skin. In china, pale skin was considered beautiful so often Cunxin was separated from the city kids and usually were around the countryside kids. He felt inadequate because of his darker skin tone and with looks being one of the main reasons for his scouting, the pressure to be up to the political heads and teachers were high.

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“Those first few weeks at the Beijing Dance Academy were an agony of loneliness. Nights were the worst” (154). Cunxin would clutch onto a quilt his Niang made for him, it gave him comfort and for several months he had become introverted and didn’t speak much. He was homesick and a part of him wanted to go home, but the expectations and wishes of his entire village and family made it impossible to. This was his only chance at breaking the vicious cycle of poverty in his family, and he knows his parents, brothers and Niang are counting on him.  He had no choice but to stay in Beijing.

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Cunxin took the opportunity and was ready to start a very hopeful and promising future at the Beijing Dance Academy. There is when Cunxin experienced many luxury gestures from his peers. They gifted him a diary that had pictures of Chairman Mao. They also pitched in some money to pay for photos since his family was far away and couldn’t afford the expenses.

He didn’t want to let his family down. Beijing is his chance at helping his parents. Trying not to feel discouraged, Cunxin stayed strong and pushed himself to take a step forward in this unfamiliar journey. Cunxin was the youngest and weakest dancer when he first started.

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(#4). Chairman Mao’s Classroom - Leaving Home

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(#4). Chairman Mao’s Classroom - Leaving Home

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“The Li Family has one more scholar today. I hope you’ll study hard “ (82). The compulsory age for school was 8. But the year Cunxin was supposed to attend school, there was not enough room so he started later. One mile away from his village, carrying a wooden small box that held one pencil, a round eraser and Mao’s Red Book, Cunxin started his first day of school. He quickly realized his fascination with ballet and heard about an opportunity to be one of the lucky few selected to study ballet in Beijing and serve Chairman Mao’s revolution. Days went by and Cunxin was losing hope. He soon had to work in the fields while also going to school. One day, some time after he had thought he wouldn’t be selected, someone came to the village and gave news that Cunxin is one of the few to be selected to go to Beijing to study dance and ballet.

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Cunxin has 7 brothers. They had a strong relationship and were expected to care and look after each other since their parents were working most of the time. Their aunt and uncle were like second parents to them. They were unable to have children and cared for the 7 boys with unconditional love and open arms. Cunsang, the fourth born brother nearly died when he was born. An incident where the oldest brothers were stacking chairs led to the pile crashing down onto newly born Cunsang’s head. He started experiencing seizures. Medicine was expensive, and his family couldn’t afford it. Desperate, it left his mom with only one choice, and several days after the chair incident, experiencing repeated seizures and nonstop crying, his mom left him on Northern Hill near their village. When his grandma found out, she begged their mom to tell her where she left Cunsang. Then is when she found almost frozen to death Cunsang. He had severe fevers for awhile but miraculously recovered and his seizures had stopped. Eldest brother Cuncia joined the Central Government to help their political agenda in influencing Tibetan culture in the dominant Mandarin way. Second oldest brother, Cunyuan took responsibility as the oldest in Cuncia’s absence. He to wanted to join the Central Government but his parents refused since they needed his salary and were desperate for a daughter-in-law to help with domestic duties. So they arranged his marriage.

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With 7 siblings, there was never enough food. Meat, seafood, sugar, eggs, oil, rice, and wheat are some rare items the Li Family saw at the dinner table, only on special occasions. Each month they would be given a small amount of these items, but they were often unavailable. They drank from wells which were infested with worms that would give terrible stomach virus and knotted stomach pain. They mostly ate yams as it was the easiest to grow and was mainly managed in their village. Dried yams were the most hated food among the family members but the Li Family considers themselves lucky. Some families in Qingdao couldn’t afford yams.

“We were luckier than the thirty million who starved to death. Dried yams saved our lives” (13).

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Li Cunxin was born on January 26th, 1961. He was his parent’s 6th child of 7 boys. Cunxin lived in Qingdao Province which was Japanese occupied. He lived in a 6 bedroom house with around 20 family members under one roof. Li had a difficult childhood. He was born into a poor family of field workers- or any job that paid enough to provide food. The Li Family Hierarchy was to be respected. His mother had the lowest status so she would work hard to prove her worth. His dad worked two jobs, and would rarely be home until late evening. Despite barley having enough money to come by, the one thing the Li Family had was pride. They always kept their honesty, dignity and pride which led them to have a good reputation in their village.