Previous
Chapter 16: Change
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
Cunxin enjoys the master classes with Ben Stevenson. Soon afterward, Stevenson invites the academy to nominate two dancers to attend his annual, six-week ballet summer school with the Houston Ballet. The academy selects Cunxin and a classmate named Zhang Weiqiang to go. Cunxin is excited but also overwhelmed by the opportunity to become the first official exchange artists between China and the United States since 1949. He hasn’t ever been anywhere besides his hometown and Beijing, and he struggles through the tasks of applying for a passport and learning enough English to get by. Government officials brief Cunxin and Weiqiang, reminding them to make a good impression on behalf of China. They also encourage the teens to maintain their communist ideals and not succumb to the temptations of capitalism.
The opportunity to go to America is, like the original opportunity to attend the dance academy, could change Cunxin’s life. And, like his first big break, the trip tests Cunxin in ways that he couldn’t have imagined. Yet, he draws on the inner reserves of strength and resilience a lifetime of hard work and struggle have given him. Readers should note the Chinese government’s ambivalence about the exchange: they’re eager to show off the successful products of their regime, like Cunxin and Weiqiang, but they’re anxious about what the exposure to other ideas and ideologies might do to loosen their grip on the dancers.
Themes
For the first time since leaving home, Cunxin uses the telephone to tell his family the news. When he speaks to Cunyuan and Niang, they cheer. They also warn him to be careful—ever since the Party came to power, Chinese people have heard an endless stream of horror stories about America. Even though Cunxin doesn’t fully believe the stories, he still feels somewhat apprehensive. On the day of his departure, the Bandit, Liu Fengtian, and a few other friends treat him and Zhang Weiqiang to a lavish final meal. As they say goodbye, the Bandit presses a note into Cunxin’s hand, telling him to read it on the airplane.
The stories of hardship and abuse the Communist Party tells continue to have power even as China opens to the West. Although Cunxin claims to be nervous about visiting America given the horror stories he’s been brought up with, the thing that really seems to make him uncomfortable is his awareness of just how far he will be, for the first time in his life, from the real and adoptive families who have supported and nurtured him throughout his formative years.
Themes
Cunxin’s and Zhang Weiqiang’s real adventures begin at the airport, where Zhang Shu treats them to Coca-Colas. Then, they board an unbelievably large, luxuriously air-conditioned airplane. Once they’ve taken off, Cunxin remembers to read the note from the Bandit, which contains a poem affirming their unshakeable bond as blood brothers. And then he’s overwhelmed by the flight’s luxuries: a hostess to serve his every whim, movies to watch, and delicious food to eat. He doesn’t have to lift a finger. Eventually the plane lands in Tokyo where, after a layover, they board another plane, this one even more exotic for its international assortment of travelers—and its glossy in-flight magazines full of beautiful, full-color pictures. Cunxin can hardly believe he’s left China. He is almost unbearably excited, even though he has no idea what to expect.
The airport sodas remind readers of how much change has already come to China in the short time since Deng came to power: foreign products aren’t yet common, but they’re not exactly rare, either. Although it’s unclear whether the airline Cunxin and Weiqiang take to Tokyo is Chinese or foreign, it is clear that not everyone in the world—or even in China—lives in the grinding poverty of Cunxin’s rural family or the less severe but still limited circumstances of most people in the cities. Readers should remember that his Party-affiliated uncle’s “luxurious” apartment still only had four rooms, and even the relatively privileged students at the dance academy only have access to limited resources and low-quality medical care. The stories that the government has told Cunxin about China’s greatness seem ever more false as his perspective widens.
Themes
