Maos Last Dancer - a book review

 

In a land where sons are considered the only real wealth, being born the sixth of seven brothers was a blessing, but in rural northern China such joy was tempered by constant hunger and enduring poverty and hunger were Li Cunxin's earliest memories. As his father and mother have tilled the reluctant soil, so will he spend his life wresting from it the meagerest of sustenance. Living in a tiny room, on a dingy commune street, a hole in the ground for a toilet, eating meal after meal of dried yams, Cunxin's six brothers and his parents have only one another. But the “one another” is what really nourishes them. There is no lack of love in this home that is lacks almost everything else.

In addition to their peasant poverty, they are oppressed by the politics of Chairman Mao, who governs their lives, insists on clamorous loyalty and undying faith. They live in a commune, subject to the vision of others who live far away and far above them. It is the only world these peasants know, all else is forbidden, their very thoughts are not considered their own. What could a young boy in such circumstances possibly know about the world of the ballet? What could he possibly have in common with it? It is as different a cosmos as another planet would be. I knew very little about Communist China before reading this book so it served as a thorough history lesson on a world that was so completely different to mine.

Madame Mao decided that she wanted China to excel in the ballet and to that end ordered recruitment from around the nation to fill the Academy of Dance in Beijing. Searchers went out to the provinces purposely looking among those, such as rural peasants, who had never been politically tainted in the eyes of the communist leaders. A group came to Cunxin’s school where he was chosen to audition through painful exercises to test the children’s flexibility.

 Cunxin enters his new world weighed down with his old. He must uphold the pride of his family's name, rural and unknown; he is their representative. His commune, his province, his school; he feels everyone is depending upon him. And now in this huge strange capital he feels all China is watching and weighing his ability to bring glory to his nation. It's a heavy burden for a young boy. Cunxin eventually moves to America where he becomes a star in the Houston Ballet Company and ultimately ends up on the Oprah Winfrey Show where he is revered by the American audience.  

Li Cunxin writes in a fluid, moving manner, I would never guess that English isn’t his native tongue. Despite this I found myself skipping through large chunks of the book to get to the end. This is the sort of book that is lapped up by the masses and intercepted by Hollywood and turned into a motion picture because it symbolises the height of the American Dream where anything is possible if you put your mind to it,  and even though it is a true story I was not entirely riveted.