Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin [92]
“With Barbara Bush,” courtesy of the George Bush Presidential Library.
“Esmeralda pas de deux” courtesy of the Australian Ballet. Photo by Branco Gaica.
“My beloved family” courtesy of the Melbourne Age. Photo by Chris Beck.
Footnote
1 Mandarin Chinese, in the form spoken in and around Beijing, forms the basis for Modern Standard Chinese, or the national language. It uses four tones: level, rising, falling, high-rising, to distinguish words or syllables with the same series of consonants and vowels but with different meanings.
Copyright © 2003 by Li Cunxin
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
Quotations on pages 61 and 72 are from the songs “I Love Beijing Tiananmen” and “We Love Chairman Mao” (author’s own translation)
“A Short Note on the Long History of China” written by Barbara Ker Wilson
First published in Australia in 2003 by Penguin Books Australia, a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.
Electronic edition published in October 2011
Published in the United States of America in 2008 by Walker Publishing Company, Inc. Distributed to the trade by Macmillan
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Walker & Company, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Li, Cunxin.
Mao’s last dancer / Li Cunxin.
p. cm.
“First published in Australia in 2003 by Penguin Books Australia.”
eISBN: 978 0 80272 812 8 (ebook)
1. Li, Cunxin, 1961– 2. Ballet dancers—China—Biography. 3. Defectors—China—Biography.
GV1785.L475A3 2008 792.802’8092—dc22 [B] 2008006104
Visit Walker & Company’s Web site at
www.walkeryoungreaders.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Dedication
Map
A Wedding Qingdao, 1946
Part One My Childhood
1. Home
2. My Niang and Dia
3. A Commune Childhood
4. Seven Brothers
5. Na-na
6. Chairman Mao’s Classroom
7. Leaving Home
Part Two Beijing
8. Feather in a Whirlwind
9. The Caged Bird
10. That First Lonely Year
11. The Pen
12. My Own Voice
13. Teacher Xiao’s Words
14. Turning Points
15. The Mango
16. Change
17. On the Way to the West
18. “Filthy Capitalist America”
19. Good-bye, China
Part Three The West
20. Return to the Land of Freedom
21. Elizabeth
22. Defection
Afterword
A Short Note on the Long History of China
Picture Section
Li Cunxin and China: A Historic Time Line
Writing and Pronouncing Chinese Words in English
Acknowledgments
Photograph Credits
Footnote
Imprint