 Mao's last dancer. [Abridged version.]
Author: Cunxin, Li Published: 2006 Li Cunxin grew up in a remote commune village in China, his young life full of hardship. Then in 1971, at the age of eleven, he was chosen to train as a dancer at Madam Mao's Beijing Dance Academy. After seven years of punishing training Li danced his way to the top of the class and won a rare scholarship to America, where he began to discover the truth behind Chinese propaganda. In 1981 he defected, and began a career in the west the took him first to Houston and to marriage to Mary McKendry (formerly of London Festival Ballet). [This is an abridged version of the full text, intended for younger readers.] |
