Mao's Last Dancer--Two Thumbs Up!!

Just finished reading one book called Mao's Last Dancer, recommended by so many of my friends, I hardly believe how inspiring the story is about this dancer till I finally got the chance to stick my nose in it over the passing week.

Li Cunxin, a Chinese peasant boy, born in a really shabby and poor Li commune in Qingdao, Shandong Province, knowing nothing about Ballet but just his determination of change buried in deep of his heart, he was selected to go to Madame Mao's Ballet Academy in Beijing when he was only 11 years old. Since then, this "Ugly Duckling" has completely changed his life. Better physical environment didn't really bring him too much joyful memory, nor fortune under the control of the communism, he was still a peasant boy except withno physical love from his parents afar.he was alone, agonising, however, never lost his faith in his determined heart, more importantly, he didn't want to be the frog in the well for the rest of his life, but to let his parents do his proud... He worked as hard as he could, practicing pirouettes, Pas de deox, pas de chat as much as he could, he never allowed himself to have excuse of rest, no matter how harsh the weather was, how painful his back felt, he kept spining on his toes which was destinied to be the only way to draw himself closer to his desire.

When he was selected to go to America Houston Ballet Academy as an exchange student by Ben Stevenson, his valued this chance dearly but he was stunned and felt being trapped once he saw the so called filthy, poor, nusty capitalistic land developing so well with friendly & civilized residents, advanced infrastructure, which was totally opposite to what Chinese communists said about this country. The most important thing he has noticed in these landers' eyes was freedom, which he never ever had in China. His decision of staying in US has finally turned out to be the criticism of him being a defector. Chinese Consul aggressive interrogation, failure of marriage, emotional trauma didn't shake his determination, however what deeply saddened him was the cut-off from his parents. Till 1988, he was eventually allowed to go back to his hometown to reunite with his family...

Mao's Last Dancer is a great hit, not only is it an auto-biography of Li, but it's more of a story to inspire the readers. Once you pick up this book, your heart beat will be in line with the rhythm of the author, being sad while he was suffering, being haunted while he was struggling, being angry while he was denounced by the Chinese government. With the flow of the story, you never want to put it away, that's how it held me up till 3:00a.m. and I absolutely enjoyed every second of it...