The sequel to Mao's Last Dancer - the highly anticipated follow up to one of the world’s most beloved books.
In Mao’s Last Dancer, Li Cunxin stole our hearts with his inspirational rags-to-riches story of being plucked from obscurity as a child in Communist China to become one of the world’s most acclaimed ballet dancers. Now, Li returns to captivate readers with what happened next in his extraordinary life as he is faced with new challenges that further test the strength of his spirit and the depth of his resilience. As a celebrated artist living in the West, Li grapples with the complexities of cultural identity and personal sacrifice. Navigating the dazzling yet demanding world of international ballet, he is confronted by haunting memories of his humble beginnings in rural China and the family he left behind. Torn between two worlds, Li must reconcile the passion for his art with the love for his poor family in China, all while building his own family with his former dance partner and beloved wife Mary, and creating a new-generation ballet company that will transform the Australian ballet scene and take its dancers to the world stage. Along the way, Li shares his hard-won and heart-felt life lessons on learning and leadership, love and legacy, and the power and possibility of dreaming big. Whether success comes through luck or from hard work and dedication, this inspiring memoir is proof that sometimes fortune favours the brave, and that the greatest performance of all is the one we give in our own heart.
Li Cunxin AO was born in 1961 in the Li Commune, near the city of Qingdao on the coast of north-east China. The sixth of seven sons in a poor rural family, Li's peasant life in Chairman Mao's communist China changed dramatically when, at the age of eleven, he was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural advisers to become a student at the Beijing Dance Academy. After a summer school in America, for which he was one of only two students chosen, he defected to the West and became a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and The Australian Ballet.
Li went on to become one of the best male dancers in the world. He then made a career transition to finance and was a senior manager in a major stockbroking firm in Australia. He lived with his wife, Mary, and their three children, Sophie, Tom and Bridie, in Melbourne for over seventeen years until his appointment as the Artistic Director of Queensland Ballet in 2012. In 2019, Li was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen's Birthday honours for distinguished service to the performing arts, particularly to ballet, as a dancer and artistic director.
Li's autobiography, Mao's Last Dancer, has received numerous accolades including the Australian Book of the Year Award and has been published around the world. The children’s version won the Australian Publishers Association's Book of the Year for Younger Children and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Children's Book Award.
Mao's Last Dancer was adapted into a 2009 blockbuster feature film of the same name by director Bruce Beresford.
