"Mao's Last Dancer" -- Li Cunxin's autobiogr

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Dance with destiny
September 1, 2003
The Age

Now a stockbroker in Melbourne, Li Cunxin has had an extraordinary journey from poverty in China to international ballet star. Louise Bellamy reports.

Li's extraordinary tale is published today. In it, he tells his story simply in his second language, English, and recounts his village upbringing, his training in Beijing, his defection to the United States, his 16 years with the Houston Ballet, and his final three years as principal dancer of the Australian Ballet until his retirement in 2000, aged 38.

<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/30/1062194752693.html" target=_blank>More...</a>

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Dance of the peasant prince
By Neil Jillett
September 6, 2003
Sydney Morning Herald

Li Cunxin's extraordinary journey took him from a lice-infested hut in Mao's China to a high-rise stockbroking firm in Melbourne.

If Li Cunxin lacked some of the technical sharpness he had shown as a star of the Houston Ballet in the 1980s and '90s, it was only fair to remember that at his age, 42, most dancers have hung up their ballet shoes. And, although he had left Houston eight years before to join another company in another country, there were no hard feelings, because, as many of those applauding Texans knew, the departure meant his wife would return to her homeland and family.

<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/05/1062549014871.html" target=_blank>More...</a>

kurinuku · **Posted:** Sun Feb 01, 2004 11:16 pm

Quote:

Leap forward to Sydney brokerage

By ANG BEE LIN
The NZ Herald
January 31, 2004

Stockbroker Li Cunxin admits it's sometimes hard to resist the temptation to break into pirouettes and split jumps in his Melbourne high-rise office.

...

Born into a peasant family in the northeastern Chinese city of Qingdao, home of Tsingtao beer, his defection to the United States in 1981 made international headlines.

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corrival · **Posted:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 6:52 am

Dance of Deception
Washington Post
Sunday, March 21, 2004; Page BW07
Dennis Drabelle

Quote:

On his first trip to the United States, Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin got to meet Barbara Bush; he braced himself for an onslaught of political propaganda, but in fact she "talked about China very fondly." A few days later an American student surprised him even more by speaking critically of then-President Jimmy Carter. Li Cunxin "looked around nervously," but the student reassured him: "I can say anything I like about our president." That first trip lasted only six weeks, Li Cunxin reports in his autobiography, Mao's Last Dancer (Putnam, $25.95), but already he was feeling tempted, not least by the contrast between Chinese dance instructors' stodgy ways and the innovative choreography he encountered in the States. "What if I were to have that same freedom?" he asked himself. "What could I do with my ballet then?"

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Francis Timlin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:45 pm

In The Christian Science Monitor, Christie Taylor interviews Li Cunxin while in Houston during a book signing tour:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p15s01-almo.html

Azlan · **Posted:** Sat Aug 14, 2004 7:56 pm

A review in our own magazine:

Quote:

Mao's Last Dancer - by Li Cunxin

Book review by Leland Windreich, Ballet-Dance Magazine

For Li Cunxin, born in 1961, the chances of becoming a world acclaimed ballet dancer were a million to one. Number six in a Chinese family of seven boys, sleeping head to toe in a peasant commune hovel near the costal city of Quingdao, Li had neither special talents nor childhood yearnings to be a performer. <a href=http://www.ballet-dance.com/200407/articles/MaoDancer20040600.html target=_blank>more</a>

kurinuku · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:28 am

An interview with Li Cunxin:

Quote:

The Dancer Who Defected Twice

by ERIKA KINETZ
the New York Times

KINETZ Why did your teacher single you out?

LI I never knew. Years later I phoned her up. She said, "I have no idea."

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kurinuku · **Posted:** Tue Dec 14, 2004 9:10 am

Quote:

Film lights shine on Mao's last dancer

by KATARINA STRICKLAND
the Australian

It's just excited conversation for now – a wish list for director and star that might or might not come true. What is firm, however, is that Scott, the producer who turned pianist David Helfgott's life story into the Oscar-winning film Shine, has bought the film rights to Li's best-selling autobiography, Mao's Last Dancer.

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"Mao's Last Dancer" -- Li Cunxin's autobiogr

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