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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mao’s Last Dancer, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Opportunity, Hard Work, and Success
Love and Family
The Power of Stories
Freedom vs. Repression
Summary
Analysis
When Cunxin returns for the beginning of his fourth year at Beijing Dance Academy, he learns that some of the teachers—including Teacher Xiao—may soon be dismissed. Unable to bear the through of losing his favorite teacher—the one who helped him to like ballet—Cunxin rushes to Zhang Shu to tell the ballet department head how much he and the rest of the students like and respect Xiao. Teacher Xiao remains at the school that year, working the students hard on their pirouettes. He tells Cunxin to aim to do 10 in a row. Cunxin can barely do three, but the challenge plants a new desire in him to be the best dancer he can be.
In a society where everyone is judged on their conformity to Party ideology—but where that ideology shifts and changes according to the whims of the leaders at the top, and in which people are subject to harassment and investigation on the flimsiest of charges—everyone remains vulnerable to persecution. Teacher Xiao’s situation merely reminds Cunxin of one of the basic realities of his—and everyone else’s—life in China. It implies that, as important as Cunxin’s personal effort is, even impressive feats like learning to pirouette 10 times in a row will not protect him.
Themes
The academy is invited to dance an excerpt from The Red Detachment of Women in an upcoming performance for Madame Mao. Bandit wins the lead role, and Cunxin is selected to dance the role of a minor peasant boy. He’s immensely grateful to have made the cut and feels shocked when Chen Leung promotes him to a bigger role one day in rehearsal. Cunxin feels bad for the boy he displaced. He asks Teacher Chen to return him to his initial, smaller role. But Teacher Chen tells Cunxin that his dancing earned the promotion, and if he fears being the best, he should quit. Cunxin keeps the role and works hard to be worthy of it. It is the first break of his professional career; even Madame Mao laughs at his character’s on-stage antics.
After a lifetime of privation and want—and after a few difficult years at the academy where teachers focused far more on Cunxin’s failures than his successes—he struggles to accept the praise and recognition he’s beginning to earn. But, as at other crucial moments in his life, like when he powers through the fear and pain of the academy auditions, he knows better than to let a golden opportunity pass him by. Madame Mao’s approval further confirms his belief in hard work and inspires him to keep at it.
Themes
As his dancing improves, so does Cunxin’s performance in his academic classes. One day in Chinese class, the teacher presents a short fable about a farmer who thinks he’s discovered the secret to getting good food without hard work after a blind rabbit runs into a tree on the edge of his property, killing itself. The man waits all year for another blind rabbit to come, too intent to plant or tend any crops. By the time he realizes his stupidity, it’s too late: the planting season is over, and the family’s savings are gone. Cunxin takes the lessons of this story—there are no shortcuts, nothing comes easily, reward requires hard work, time is precious—to heart.
Most of the stories Cunxin repeats in the book come from beloved figures like Dia and Teacher Xiao. But this one, from an otherwise unremarkable person in Cunxin’s life, shows that stories hold their power regardless of their source. Likewise, the story of the Chicago steel baron moved Cunxin deeply even though he never knew who wrote it originally. Like many of the other moral tales in the book, the farmer waiting for the blind rabbit illustrates the importance of working hard and the folly of expecting opportunities to arise without effort.
Themes
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After midyear exams, the students get to “grade” the teachers, too. When one student accuses Teacher Xiao of favoring students like Cunxin, Teacher Xiao loudly defends himself for praising those who deserve praise. Cunxin feels pleased, but embarrassed, too. Chinese culture strongly discourages individualism during the Cultural Revolution. In pas de deux class, the students watch Russian ballet performances on film, mostly to criticize their filthy capitalist storylines. But Cunxin secretly thinks that the performances, storylines, dancing, and costumes are more cohesive—and therefore more artistically accomplished—than the Chinese ballets jointly produced by artists and Chinese Communist Party officials.
Cunxin’s struggles to accept praise show how effectively Party indoctrination has taught him that his life is worth nothing more than he can contribute to the Party. And as the Cultural Revolution’s attempts to purify Chinese culture grind on, the academy curriculum becomes more and more politically—rather than artistically—focused. The more he sees art subordinated to political aims, the more Cunxin yearns for the space to explore his art—and to express his feelings.
Themes
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Political upheaval occurs at the end of Cunxin’s fourth year at the dance academy following the death of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in January of 1976. After his death, Chairman Mao organizes the public denunciation of another Party official, Deng Xiaoping, whose popularity among the Chinese population threatens the authority of Mao and his inner circle, the Gang of Four. But this plan largely backfires due to Deng’s popularity—the economy improved for many rural and poor Chinese under his watch. Criticism remains half-hearted, and people start to criticize Madame Mao and other elite but ineffective Party leaders.
Mao started the Cultural Revolution to purge his rivals in the Party and to consolidate his power after a series of missteps and failed programs. Ten years into the Cultural Revolution, the political purges continue. But there are signs of shifting opinion among the Chinese people, despite the dangers of speaking out against the Party. Decades of suffering and trauma under Mao’s leadership mean that people are finally beginning to question the Party’s motives and its ability to follow through on its promises.
Themes
During Cunxin’s fifth year at the academy, the students learn and perform a full model ballet called The Children of the Meadow. They also participate in the creation of a new one, called Hai Luo Sha, about two teenage siblings whose parents are murdered by the Guomindang Army. They each join Mao’s Red Army and eventually get revenge for their parents’ deaths. Cunxin earns a lead role in both ballets. He’s thrilled and honored by the opportunity. But, when the students begin performing outside of the academy walls, he begins to experience stage fright.
Cunxin’s artistic life continues to flourish, but the political situation limits the range of roles he can dance. The three Chinese ballets he describes—the two here and The Red Detachment of Women—are all political ballets designed to reinforce a propagandistic point about the superiority of Chinese communism to the political system it replaced. This suggests that Cunxin’s ultimate success depends on political and personal freedom. Still, he does the best he can with the roles he’s offered, proving his dedication to his art even in these limited circumstances.
Themes
It’s during this year that Cunxin and his classmates spend their class education with an army detachment. Shooting is the only thing Cunxin really enjoys about the soldiers’ lives, and he longs to return to his regular dance classes at the academy. He also faces increased social responsibilities as a leader of the Communist Youth Party group at the school and the vice-captain of his class. The school’s political heads encourage him to consider applying for Party membership in a few years, when he’s old enough to join that “glorious breed of human being.” Cunxin feels honored, but cautious: he likes some—but not all—of the Party members he knows. Plus, Party membership carries a huge commitment of time and energy, just as he’s truly becoming invested in his dancing.
At a certain point, Cunxin’s interest in dancing begins to overtake everything else, even his formerly enthusiastic participation in the Youth Party group. Some of this may have to do with the series of experiences described previously in the book that have begun to undermine his faith in the Party and what it stands for. Plus, the fact that “glorious” Party members like Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi, and Lin Biao can find themselves disgraced and banished suggests that membership has less to do with a person’s character and more to do with how well they live up to the Party’s (or Mao’s) expectations.
Themes
That summer, a massive earthquake strikes about 100 miles east of Beijing. As aftershocks rock the capital, the dance academy students must vacate their old buildings to live in a hastily constructed encampment in one of the city’s parks for a few days. Over 200,000 people lose their lives in the earthquake. 150,000 people are injured, and millions are displaced. Back home, Cunyuan volunteers at the hospital helping to care for displaced earthquake victims; he tells Cunxin how traumatized these victims were. The slightest sound or tremor would send them into a panic.
The book includes a brief account of the Tangshan Earthquake, which happened in July of 1976. Cunxin has a personal connection of sorts to the catastrophe, in the form of letters between him and Cunyuan. Underexplored but implied in the book’s account is the fact that the earthquake and its devastating aftermath further undermined faith in the Communist Party and its ability to care for the Chinese people. In addition to the public reaction toward Mao’s attempt to sideline Deng Xiaoping, the earthquake hints at massive changes about to take place in the Party and in Chinese society.
Themes
Then, in September 1976, the unthinkable happens: Chairman Mao dies. The whole nation mourns their beloved leader. But they also worry: things were hard enough under his illustrious leadership, and his successor, Hua Guofeng, is weak and ineffective. The day after Mao’s death, Cunxin and the Bandit discuss the situation. The Bandit fears immanent chaos, maybe even civil war. He plans to go home and fight for the communist cause if necessary. Cunxin doesn’t want to fight; he loves ballet and wants to use that as his weapon—as Madame Mao intended. One month later, in another shocking turn of events, Madame Mao and the rest of the Gang of Four—the Party leaders with the most power and oversight during the Cultural Revolution—have been arrested. But despite the ongoing political upheaval, Cunxin’s dancing catches the attention of academy vice director Zhang Ce. He has at last hit his stride.
Mao’s death unsettles society because he didn’t just lead the Chinese Communist Party—in many ways, he was the Chinese Communist Party. Everything from elementary school education to the finest examples of twentieth-century Chinese art revolved around Mao. In this moment, Cunxin reveals how much he’s come to distrust communism and the Party over the course of his young life At this point in his life, if given the opportunity to fight for its survival, he would choose to dance instead. He has fallen so in love with dance that he would choose his art over his Party loyalties—something that later events will put to the test.
Themes
