Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“[A] fascinating memoir…told simply but passionately, with subtle humor and unguarded emotion.”—
The Houston Chronicle“Mix
Billy Elliot with
Torn Curtain and you’ll have some of the tale in very broad outline…well-paced…full of adventures.”—
Kirkus Reviews “Fascinating reading…unfolds with honesty, humor, and a quiet dignity. This book has wide appeal, for it concerns not only a dancer’s coming of age in a turbulent time but also individual strength, self-discovery, and the triumph of the human spirit.”—
Library Journal“The facts of his life are astonishing on their own, but what makes Li Cunxin’s engrossing autobiography so captivating is his enthusiastic retelling of every twist and turn.”—
Vogue (Australia)
Table of ContentsMao's Last DancerA Wedding: Qingdao, 1946
Part One: My Childhood
1. Home
2. My Niang and Dia
3. A Commune Childhood
4. The Seven of Us
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. The Filthy Capitalist America
19. Good-bye, China
Part Three: The West
20. Return to the Land of Freedom
21. Elizabeth
22. Defection
23. My New Life
24. A Millet Dream Come True
25. No More Nightmares
26. Russia
27. Mary
28. Going Home
29. Back in My Village
30. Another Wedding: Qingdao, 1988
Postscript
The Li Family Tree
Acknowledgments
