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Chapter 24: A Millet Dream Come True
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
Hours after receiving the letter, Cunxin calls the Party office in his old village and asks to speak to his dia. The five minutes he waits while officials summon his family to the phone seem like five hours, but soon enough he’s talking to everyone as Cunyuan, Cunmao, and Jing Tring pass the phone around. Then Niang gets on the line, her voice choked by tears. Cunxin explains that she and Dia have received permission to visit him in America and that they can start applying for their passports. She can hardly believe the good news. Before she hands the phone to Dia, Cunxin tells her directly, for the first time in his life, that he loves her.
The love and affection among the members of Cunxin’s family has always been clear but the emotionally repressed nature of Chinese society means that he has never put his feelings into words. His time in America hasn’t changed his feelings for his family, but it has made him feel free enough to express them.
Themes
While Cunxin waits for his parents to obtain their Chinese passports and American visas, he represents the Houston Ballet in the Japan International Ballet Competition alongside with Martha Butler, a 17-year-old dancer. As on the rest of his international trips, Cunxin is impressed by the charm and beauty of Japan. Because Martha is so young and inexperienced, they place 26th after the first round. But she’s a fast learner, and her dancing improves daily throughout the two weeks of the competition. Ultimately, she and Cunxin earn a silver medal, and Ben wins gold for choreographing their routines. Cunxin returns from Japan and goes straight into rehearsals for The Nutcracker. His parents help him finish repairs and decorate his house for their arrival. Cunxin makes enormous shopping trip during which he buys pork, chicken, eggs, Tsingtao beer, expensive rice wine, and fresh fruit.
It’s a testament to Cunxin’s incredible work ethic that he’s not just able to focus on his dancing while waiting for his long-anticipated reunion with his family, but that he proves himself to be among the best dancers in the world. Martha’s story, recounted in passing, echoes the lesson of Cunxin’s life that hard work is a necessary component of success. Cunxin’s big shopping trip echoes the time he went to the mall with Ben and calculated that Ben had spent as much on one year’s gifts as his father could earn in a lifetime. In many ways, Cunxin has become used to the standard of living he enjoys in America, but his loving description of the food items suggests that he does not—nor ever will—take it for granted.
Themes
On the night of Niang’s and Dia’s arrival, December 18th, 1984, Cunxin tries to stay calm while preparing for the night’s performance. It’s the first time in his life that his parents will see him dance. He wonders what they will think of his glittery costume and makeup. Their plane is nearly an hour late arriving, and the Ballet delays the start of the show by nearly 20 minutes to prevent them from missing a minute of it. When they arrive, the entire audience bursts into applause. Everyone knows them, as Houstonians have been following Cunxin’s story for years now. From the wings, Cunxin hears the applause and nearly bursts with happiness.
Cunxin is excited to see his family but worries that they won’t understand or recognize him in his new, American life. After all, he could hardly imagine America before his first visit, either. The fact that the Ballet delays their curtain for his parents to arrive—and that the entire audience bursts into applause, welcoming Niang and Dia as honored guests in their country and their theater—testifies to the power of the relationships Cunxin forms wherever he goes. He’s made the Houston Ballet his family, and it in turn welcomes his parents as intimate acquaintances, not as strangers.
Themes
Cunxin gives the performance of a lifetime. He feels like a flying bird when he performs the technically challenging leaps of Ben’s choreography. During intermission, Ben brings Niang and Dia backstage. For the first time in six years, Cunxin sees his parents. They look older—and more formal, in their silk Mao jackets—than he remembers. But Niang’s tender embraces is as familiar as ever.
As in other moments throughout the book, Cunxin appeals to the image of a flying bird to express his joyful feeling of both accomplishment and freedom as he dances for his parents for the first time in his life. Crucially, fact that they never had an opportunity to watch Cunxin dance in China but had to come all the way to America suggests their relative unimportance in the eyes of the Party.
Themes
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After the show, Cunxin takes his parents back to his house. He cooks dinner, and they talk about their lives. Many things have changed. Deng Xiaoping’s open-door policy has raised living standards for poor families like theirs. Niang has developed diabetes and a heart condition. Of Cunxin’s brothers, only Jing Tring remains unmarried. Cunxin has many nieces and nephews. Some family and friends distanced themselves after his defection, fearful of consequences. Soon afterward, Party officials visited the family. They disparaged Niang for raising a disloyal “bastard.” But Niang struck back, telling the officials that the Party had taken her son away when he was just 11 and been responsible for him ever since. It was their fault, not hers. After that, the Party never harassed her again. Still, Cunxin’s parents feared worse consequences, like prison, even though such consequences failed to materialize.
The Party officials’ attack on Niang reinforces Cunxin’s understanding that loyalty between the Party and the people goes only one way. When Cunxin’s dancing made them look good, they took the credit. When his defection highlighted their failures, they tried to cast the blame on Niang. She refuses to accept it, even with the risk of being punished for her failure to conform. Clearly, Cunxin isn’t the only person in his family with an inherent yearning for freedom and self-determination.
Themes
Niang and Dia tell Cunxin how proud of him they are and have always been. Niang describes a dream she had soon after he first left for the Beijing Dance Academy. Through a cloud of mist, she saw a huge, beautiful company of dancers clothed in rainbows. She tells Cunxin that her dream came true today: she feels like the airplane brought her not to American but to the ninth heaven. Her heart is filled with pride and happiness. Now, whatever else happens, she will die in peace.
Like Cunxin’s obsession with birds, Niang’s description of her dream and her flight associates freedom with flying. Crucially, she flies to America, suggesting that, while the Beijing Dance Academy gave Cunxin his start, Niang agrees with his assessment that he could not have succeeded to the same degree within the limitations that the Party and Chinese society imposed on him.
Themes
Cunxin and his parents talk about his difficulties, too. He tells Niang and Dia how homesick he was for many years, how deeply he feared bringing shame on the family, and how using the fountain pen from Dia always reminded him to work hard. Cunxin also tells them about his brief, unsuccessful marriage to Elizabeth. Niang says only kind things about Elizabeth. She believes that a beneficent god has been watching out for Cunxin his whole life. That night, close to his parents for the first time in years, Cunxin sleeps like a baby, unbothered by nightmares.
Many years earlier, Cunxin realized how important his family’s love and support were in propelling him forward into his successful career. Now, finally, he has the chance to share this with his parents and to acknowledge their importance in his life. Their lessons carried him over obstacles even when he was far from home. Niang attributes his success to divine powers, but Cunxin’s reflections here show that he doesn’t need a beneficent god when he has his parents to watch over him. First and foremost, his success comes from the loving foundation they gave his life.
Themes
