Download PDF Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin
By clicking the web link that we provide, you can take the book Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin completely. Attach to net, download, and save to your gadget. What else to ask? Reading can be so simple when you have the soft documents of this Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin in your gadget. You could additionally replicate the documents Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin to your office computer or in the house or perhaps in your laptop. Merely share this excellent information to others. Recommend them to see this web page and obtain their looked for books Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin.
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin
Download PDF Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin
Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin When composing can change your life, when writing can enhance you by providing much money, why do not you try it? Are you still quite baffled of where understanding? Do you still have no concept with what you are visiting compose? Now, you will need reading Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin An excellent writer is a good visitor simultaneously. You could define exactly how you compose depending upon exactly what books to check out. This Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin can assist you to address the issue. It can be one of the appropriate resources to establish your creating ability.
Why need to be Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin in this website? Get more profits as just what we have actually told you. You can find the other relieves besides the previous one. Relieve of obtaining guide Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin as exactly what you want is additionally provided. Why? We offer you numerous kinds of guides that will not make you really feel bored. You can download them in the link that we supply. By downloading and install Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin, you have actually taken the proper way to choose the ease one, as compared to the inconvenience one.
The Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin has the tendency to be excellent reading book that is easy to understand. This is why this book Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin comes to be a preferred book to review. Why do not you really want become one of them? You can take pleasure in checking out Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin while doing various other tasks. The presence of the soft file of this book Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin is type of obtaining experience effortlessly. It consists of exactly how you need to conserve the book Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin, not in racks certainly. You might save it in your computer device as well as gizmo.
By saving Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin in the gadget, the means you check out will certainly likewise be much less complex. Open it as well as begin reviewing Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin, basic. This is reason we recommend this Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin in soft documents. It will not disrupt your time to obtain guide. On top of that, the on-line heating and cooling unit will additionally ease you to search Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin it, also without going somewhere. If you have connection internet in your office, home, or gadget, you could download and install Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin it directly. You could not additionally wait to get guide Mao's Last Dancer, By Li Cunxin to send out by the seller in other days.
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation.
From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.
THE BASIS FOR A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
- Sales Rank: #1052975 in Books
- Published on: 2010-07-27
- Released on: 2010-07-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.98" h x 1.38" w x 5.98" l, 1.13 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 528 pages
From Publishers Weekly
This is the heartening rags-to-riches story of Li, who achieved prominence on the international ballet stage. Born in 1961, just before the Cultural Revolution, Li was raised in extreme rural poverty and witnessed Communist brutality, yet he imbibed a reverence for Mao and his programs. In a twist of fate worthy of a fairy tale (or a ballet), Li, at age 11, was selected by delegates from Madame Mao's arts programs to join the Beijing Dance Academy. In 1979, through the largesse of choreographer and artistic director Ben Stevenson, he was selected to spend a summer with the Houston Ballet—the first official exchange of artists between China and America since 1949. Li's visit, with its taste of freedom, made an enormous impression on his perceptions of both ballet and of politics, and once back in China, Li lobbied persistently and shrewdly to be allowed to return to America. Miraculously, he prevailed in getting permission for a one-year return. In an April 1981 spectacle that received national media attention, Li defected in a showdown at the Chinese consulate in Houston. He married fellow dancer Mary McKendry and gained international renown as a principal dancer with the Houston Ballet and later with the Australian Ballet; eventually, he retired from dance to work in finance. Despite Li's tendency toward the cloying and sentimental, his story will appeal to an audience beyond Sinophiles and ballet aficionados—it provides a fascinating glimpse of the history of Chinese-U.S. relations and the dissolution of the Communist ideal in the life of one fortunate individual. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6–9—In 1961, just three years after Mao's disastrous Great Leap Forward, Li Cunxin was born, the sixth son in a family of Chinese peasants who eked out a meager existence on a rural commune. During his childhood he endured unimaginable poverty and hardships and witnessed the shooting of 15 "counter-revolutionaries" by Mao's Red Guards. When chosen to audition for Madame Mao's Beijing Ballet Academy at age 11, ballet became his chance for a good job and enough food for life. Many years of training, two U.S. trips, one premature marriage, and a defection later, Li joined the Houston Ballet as a principal dancer, paving his way to international fame. Although told in a rather bland style—mostly in basic declarative sentences—the information about the country at this time and the danger and angst that accompanied the dancer's decision to defect will be of interest to teens. This Young Reader's Edition of the adult book (Putnam, 2004) gives a much fuller portrait than the author's picture-book version, Dancing to Freedom (Walker, 2008). The black-and-white photos, the abbreviated history, and time line will help students place Li's life story into historical context. With the current interest in all things Chinese, and with the immigration debate in full swing, this is a good choice, both to promote an understanding of Chinese culture and to provoke a discussion about the issues facing today's immigrants.—Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“[A] fascinating memoir…told simply but passionately, with subtle humor and unguarded emotion.”—The Houston Chronicle
“Mix Billy Elliot with Torn Curtain and you’ll have some of the tale in very broad outline…well-paced…full of adventures.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Fascinating reading…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 facts of his life are astonishing on their own, but what makes Li Cunxin’s engrossing autobiography so captivating is his enthusiastic retelling of every twist and turn.”—Vogue (Australia)
Most helpful customer reviews
67 of 69 people found the following review helpful.
Superb account of a glorious life
By Cap'n Bob
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.
98 of 110 people found the following review helpful.
Growing up Peasant in Rural China
By Eric Langager
There seems to be no end of stories by and about people who came of age during the darkest days of the Cultural Revolution. This book is different from most of them in a couple important respects. First of all, Li Cuxin's family were peasants. Perhaps it would be a bit strong to say that they "missed" the revolution, because Li Cuxin does describe one particularly graphic scene where he witnessed an execution. But they were not personally struggled against. The peasants were the idealized heroes of the Cultural Revolution. Li Cuxin's suffering was poverty, pure and simple. But there are lots of poor people in the world. Secondly, the benefits Li Cuxin was given were unique in that they were not given him by the country he went to (America). They were given to him by the People's Republic of China. And the life he went to was really unreal. Most Americans do not live like the people Li met when he came to America. So this book is not a classic story about a persecuted person who somehow managed to find freedom in the West. As such, I must admit that I often had mixed feelings while reading this book. I don't want to spend too much time on that, but I want to address it, because it is central both to what is right and what is wrong in this book.
For me, the centerpoint of this book is Li Cunxin's decision to defect to the West. He married one of his fellow dancers secretly, and told his benefactor from the Houston Ballet that he was not going to return to China. It is this decision that really defines this story, because everything that happens before it can in some way be considered an influencing factor. And everything that happens after it is a result of it. And it is this decision that causes me to have so many mixed feelings about this book, because I believe the decision was a mistake. It was a mistake, but I have mixed feelings, because while part of me is disgusted with him for doing something so stupid and self serving, it is hard to be to angry with him, given the way he was treated by the Ministry of Culture.
This was my problem reading this book. In one sense, one is inclined to feel sorry for a kid whose dreams could be so casually dashed to pieces by one bureaucrat who just happened to be a jerk. Yet, as I said, this book is not a classic story of a persecuted dissident who escaped to the West to find freedom. Li Cunxin was privileged. Very few young people in America or Australia have the privileges he was given by his government to go to Beijing and study in the top dance academy in the nation. And Li's decision to skip the program and defect was not an act of heroism. It would have been more heroic in this case, for him to go back to China. He says his country lied to him. True, but he lied to them, too. The report he wrote for his superiors after he returned from his first trip was full of exaggerated condemnations of the West that were written to impress, not to give a true account of his experience. I think there is a very good possibility that the blatant insincerity of this report played a big part in the Culture Minister's decision not to let him return to the States. And there is certainly nothing of religious persecution in this book. Li doesn't seem to have had much interest in the things of God, although he did become a nominal Catholic to please his future inlaws. Bottom line: When the chips were down, Li Cunxin did what was good for Li Cunxin.
OK, perhaps I am a little hard on him. An emotionally vulnerable young man, drawn in by a needy young woman. Would I have done differently if I had been in his shoes? I really do try to understand, but my ability to understand is limited, because my experience was not like his, and because there is so much difference between the China I live in and the China he grew up in that they cannot really be called the same country. There are times, in today's China, when I sit at a banquet, or something, and just shake my head at the bounty. It's hard to believe that anyone ever starved in this country. And it is only fair to point out that, while I may disagree with his decision to defect when he did, there is a lot that Li Cunxin did right. His success was not just luck or good fortune. He worked very hard. He took nothing for granted. This, really was his strong point.
Recommendation: Five stars. This is without exception the best account I have read about growing up peasant in the countryside of China. And the story is told with integrity. Mind you, I am not backing down from my original statement. I think he screwed up. But he is honest about his failure--you have to give him that. And while I do not believe his defection was an act of heroism, there is plenty of heroism in this book. He tells us of his brother, who is forced to stay in his home community and forbidden to marry the woman he loves. One cannot help but be moved by the strength of character that overcomes bitter fate by enduring it bravely. Or his other brother, who is given away at birth, and destined to grow up as an "outsider" even though he lives right next door. He, too, decides to accept his fate, and do the honorable thing. I stand in awe of such men. Li Cunxin also speaks honestly about his feelings of guilt at his phenomenal success. This guilt, of course, is misplaced. He did nothing wrong. No one can fault him for wanting to succeed. And his success was a blessing to his family. And a blessing to us; we would not have this story otherwise. This book is well worth reading.
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
A warm portrait of childhood in rural China
By Margaret Miller
Li Cunxin in a Chinese Frank McCourt: with vivid detail and warm humor, he describes growing up cold, poor, hungry, and surrounded by a big family and memorable neighbors. But Li's life journey is even more improbable. Against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution, Li moves from rural poverty to defection, then international acclaim as a ballet dancer, and finally a reconciliation, of sorts, with his homeland.
Although it was written for adults, my 5- and 7-year-old kids loved the storytelling about Li's mischievous childhood in the first third of the book. The chapters about his rise in the ranks of international ballet were less entertaining. I've read dozens of China memoirs, and this is among the best.
See all 295 customer reviews...
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin PDF
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin EPub
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin Doc
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin iBooks
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin rtf
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin Mobipocket
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin Kindle
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin PDF
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin PDF
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin PDF
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin PDF
