Mao’s Last Dancer

I just finished reading “Mao’s Last Dancer” and I highly, highly recommend it, even if you aren’t really all that interested in China. It is hands down, one of the best books I have read in a very, very long time and definitely among the the most compelling auto-biographies I’ve ever read. It was completely gripping. I am a very slow reader and I blew through this 440 page book in less than three days.

In the midst of Mao Zedong’s 1960s Cultural Revolution, Cunxin Li was one of six boys of very, very poor parents in rural China. For the first ten years of his life, his family was near starvation.

One day, when he was nine years old, a four-person delegation from Mao’s culture department come to visit Li’s school. They had already selected one young girl and were leaving the classroom when the teacher tapped the last representative on the shoulder, points to Li, and says “What about this one?”

So begins a journey that would change Li’s life forever. At the age of nine, he was taken to Beijing to be trained as a ballet dancer. He would only see his family once a year. Eventually, he rose to the height of his profession and danced for kings and presidents. At the age of 18 he defected to the United States.

It’s a story about a mother’s unwavering love for her son, it’s about the irrepressible quest for freedom, its about only having one way out and doggedly pursuing that avenue with unadulterated determination. It’s about courage, determination, and hope.

If you only read one book between now and the end of the year, read this book.

-Jack

Published in 1993, “Mao’s Last Dancer” was turned into a major motion picture this last October and is available at Netflix and Amazon.com.