By: Keiyoki

For my Pick of the Week, I have chosen a movie and book titled, Mao’s Last Dancer, an autobiography by Li Cun Xin. I read the book about 3 years ago and was delighted with the reading. Here’s a short blurb of the book. A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao’s cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet (courtesy of Anonymous).

It’s a nice story that illustrates the status of a poor family willing to give up their son to promote and serve the country’s needs. While Li Cun Xin, the sixth son of seven kids, felt obligated to help with the family to survive in a rural community. As I watched the film, the story from the book is quite accurate in the film. The choreography and the direction of the film was superb. The performance were moving and pure talent of a ballet dancer. It also develops a deeper understanding of The Red Communist Party and the cultural difference of America of political relations. As a matter of fact, Li Cun Xin maybe the first Asian to dance in an American ballet company, paving the roads for other Asian American performing artists.

Nonetheless, if you are a fan of ballet dance performance or just love to see a compelling story from struggle to success or just with Asian pride, this is a movie worth watching and a book worth reading. Enjoy.

Australian Release Date 1st October, 2009

Director Bruce Beresford

Cast Chi Cao, Huang Wen Bin, Chengwu Guo, Joan Chan, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Amanda Schull

You can buy the book or the movie.

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