Mao’s Last Dancer: Chapter 2: My Niang and Dia Summary & Analysis

Cunxin’s niang and dia work very hard. Their poverty makes everything difficult, even procuring coal for cooking, heating, and washing. Each family receives a small ration of black coal from the government (there’s a shortage during most of Cunxin’s childhood), which they must supplement with half-burned coal—coal left over from industrial applications that the children collect from wherever they can find it. But still, Niang manages to keep all her family in clean clothes.

In his childish way, Cunxin tries to cheer his niang up with stories. Once, one of his brothers earns a goat kid by doing some extra work for a neighbor. After Cunxin overhears one of his mother’s friends telling her that goats sometimes sneeze out worms that have powerful medicinal properties, he tells her that their goat has sneezed out just such a worm and eaten it. Niang tells him that if it happens again, he must capture the worm. When he repeats the story too many times, she realizes he was making it up. Eventually, the goat dies of starvation. 

People call Niang “that lucky woman with seven sons” and “the live treasure,” and village women frequently come to the house to sew, drink tea, and gossip. She earns the nickname “that wild girl,” too, because she’s comfortable talking with men other than Dia, and because she’s open to new ideas. During the Cultural Revolution, she joins an evening school, and although she never truly learns to read, she memorizes Mao’s sayings with zeal. Niang is also feisty. One day when two Red Guards drop by in the middle of dinner preparations to quiz her on Mao’s teachings, she tells them they can quiz her while minding the fire and tending the wok. When they stare at her in confusion, she hollers that she’ll learn whatever they want her to, and more—if they spend as much time helping her as they do badgering her.

One cold morning when Cunxin is eight, Niang wakes up complaining of dizziness and headache. But still, when she finds their water pot frozen solid, she packs up the dirty laundry to carry to the stream on Northern Hill for washing. Around noon, a neighbor tells Cunxin that Niang fainted on her way home. Dia is still at work. Cunxin tries unsuccessfully to find help among his uncles and neighbors. Finally, he runs up the road himself. Niang and a pile of washed, wet clothes lie on the side of the road. He helps her stagger to her feet, but she collapses again after a few steps. She tells him to go home and wait for Dia’s help, but he finds a neighbor with a bicycle to help first. Then he collects the now-muddy laundry. When he finally gets home, his aunts are tending to Niang.

At this time, the village has a barefoot doctor, who prescribes Niang cheap but ineffective medicines. Chairman Mao instituted the barefoot doctor program to address a critical shortage of doctors and nurses in the countryside. The program sends young people to practice medicine in rural areas after they attend a brief training course. For a week, Niang stays in bed, burning with fever, while Dia takes on the household chores in addition to his work. The family tries to supplement the barefoot doctor’s prescriptions with folk medicine, and they even grind a bit of precious wheat to make nourishing noodle soup for Niang. She recovers but she never quite regains her former health.

Dad performs manual labor in the nearby town of Laoshan. He has one of the better-paid in the commune, since he makes 35 yuan (about $4.20) a month hauling heavy materials on a truck crew. Cunxin wishes to be a truck driver someday, but he knows that his fate, like millions of others’, most likely lies in manual agricultural labor. Neither Niang nor Dia had a formal education. But Dia still tells wonderful stories to his sons at night. Cunxin looks up to his patient, stoic, good-natured and occasionally stubborn father.

Dia loses truly loses his temper only once, when Cunxin’s fourth-oldest brother, Cunsang, earns a bad report card from school. Cunsang recruits the three youngest brothers—Cunfar, Cunxin, and Jing Tring—to help him disrupt his teacher’s visit. While the boys misbehave, their parents apologize profusely. And as soon as their guest leaves, Niang orders Dia to kill the wicked children. Jing Tring—too young to understand the consequences of his actions, according to Niang—gets a pass. But Dia beats Cunsang, Cunfar, and Cunxin while Niang pops her head in and out of the room, egging him on. The boys learn their lesson; they never misbehave like that again.

Cunxin sees his parents argue only once, after his dia gets drunk at a relative’s wedding and Niang embarrasses him by sending their sons to collect him. Their argument quickly escalates into a shouting match, and then they refuse to speak to—or even look at—each other for a full week. Cunxin’s na-na tries—and fails—to mediate. Cunxin grows more and more anxious over his mother’s sadness during the week of silence, and he tries to comfort her when she cries. Eventually, he hatches a plan. He waits at the village entrance for Dia to return from work, claiming Niang sent him. He thus reminds Dia how much Niang loves and cares for him. At home, Dia thanks Niang for her concern. They soon discover Cunxin’s plot, but by then, they’ve both forgotten their anger.