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Chapter 25: No More Nightmares
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
Later that week, Ben invites Cunxin, Niang, Dia, and Cunxin’s friend Betty Lou for dinner. When she arrives, Betty Lou shows Cunxin a letter from Vice President George Bush. The letter explains that when Bush heard that Cunxin’s parents had applied for visas, he reached out to his contacts in the State Department to facilitate the process for them. Cunxin feels overwhelmed with gratitude. His life in America is so different than in China, where Minister Wang refused to spare him even a moment of his time. Niang and Dia can hardly believe that the Vice President of the country cares about two little old Chinese peasants, either.
A few days earlier, Niang suggested that a beneficent god had been watching out for Cunxin. It turns out that powerful forces have been at work, just earthly ones. The narrative suggests that Cunxin doesn’t need gods when he has the loving bonds of his family and the powerful ties of affection and friendship to help him. This brings into focus how betrayed Cunxin feels by the Party, which showed evident disdain not just for him personally but for the fate of peasants like his parents, whom it claimed to respect. In America, by contrast, his dancing skills and friendly nature have earned him friendship and support at the highest levels of government even though he’s not even a citizen.
Themes
While Cunxin works, Niang and Dia usually stay at home, where they’re impressed with the luxuries Cunxin enjoys, like a rose garden in his back yard, hot running water, various kitchen appliances, and access to more Chinese ingredients than they can get their hands on at home. When Ben comes over for dumplings, he gifts Niang a band-new Singer sewing machine, a luxury she could never have imagined back in China, where she sews everything by hand. And when Cunxin takes his parents to a department store, Niang cannot believe how many clothes there are to choose from. At a friend’s lake house, he teaches his parents to drive golf carts, and one morning he wakes up to find them each in a golf cart, chasing each other down the street.
Just like Cunxin when he first arrived, Niang and Dia are blown away by the standard of living in America, where they can easily secure anything they need (or even just want) almost instantaneously, from hot water to specialty ingredients to tools like a sewing machine. In contrasting the American and Chinese systems, the book suggests that a government or political ideology should be judged by the quality of life it grants to people. And by that standard, although far from perfect, the capitalist American system is obviously superior.
Themes
As his parents prepare to leave, Cunxin loads up suitcase after suitcase with gifts for everyone back home: watches for his brothers, clothes for his brothers-in-law, and Houston-themed souvenirs for his nieces and nephews. Niang says they left China poor but are returning rich with love and gratitude. On the last night, Dia asks if Cunxin remembers the story of the frog in the well. He feels grateful to have gotten out of his well, at least for a little while. And he hopes that Deng Xiaoping will eventually lead China to the kind of prosperity people enjoy in America. When he bids them farewell at the airport, he wishes that he could go with them to visit his brothers. But although Chinese society hasn’t yet changed enough for him to make a visit, he can now at least call, write, and send money to his family freely.
Cunxin has everything he needs, and he can clearly afford many of the things he might want. But, again, rather than allowing this abundance to turn him into an exploitative capitalist, he instead uses it to help others—the brothers he long ago left behind and their families. When Dia asks about the frog story, it becomes clear that Cunxin isn’t the only Li family member who uses (and returns to) stories to help him understand the world. But there’s a sad tinge to the mention, since only Cunxin has escaped life in Qingdao. While Dia hopes that life in China will continue to improve, he clearly suggests that he doesn’t ever expect it to reach the same level of freedom and opportunity as Cunxin enjoys in America.
Themes
In the first half of 1985, Cunxin prepares for another international dance competition, this one in Moscow. He’s drawn to Russia, the birthplace of so many marvelous dancers, but he also cautious. He’s not a U.S. citizen, and he knows that Russia—China’s communist ally—hates defectors with a passion. Ben and Charles Foster begin to lobby the United States Congress to pass a special resolution granting him Cunxin citizenship before the competition. In the past, such special accommodations have only been made for Olympic athletes, so Cunxin doesn’t let himself get excited. But he has friends in high places, who make sure that he represents the United States when he flies to Moscow.
Yet again in Cunxin’s life, the support of the people around him gives him a much-needed boost. But now he gets that support from his intimate circle of friends, not his biological family—in part because he’s grown up and beyond his parent’s home and in part because he’s defected and left them behind in China. This support is also a testament, of course, to the hard work and effort he’s poured into his dancing. If he weren’t a world-class dancer, there would be little incentive to help him represent the country in the competition.
Themes
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Although he knows something about living in a communist country, Cunxin is still surprised at how little freedom most Russians have and how much they fear the KGB’s surveillance. One day, he visits Red Square and the mausoleum where Lenin’s body lies. He reflects with surprise on the outsized impact such a small man had on the world. And he is surprised by the similarities between the harsh life most people suffer in Russia and the harsh circumstances in which he grew up in China.
The book has emphasized time and again how nice capitalist countries like America and most of the nations in Europe seem to Cunxin; unsurprisingly, he finds Russia less impressive than Chinese propaganda would have it. Notably, he doesn’t focus on the economic downsides of communism, although he notes them. What really stands out, here as always, is the degree of freedom a system grants its citizens.
Themes
The Russian competition goes badly from the start. It takes place at the Bolshoi stage, which has a famously raked (or slanted) stage. Cunxin struggles—and fails—to adjust. Just before the first round begins, he slips and falls, injuring his back. He pushes through despite the pain, then goes to see an unhelpful Russian doctor. When he receives high marks for his contemporary ballet solo, the Russian judges complain that its choreography is politically motivated. His and Ben’s rooms are trashed, and Cunxin fears it’s because the Russian authorities are after him. Cunxin receives a bronze medal, but the Russian judges refuse to sign the certificate. The only good thing about the trip is that he has a chance to see Leningrad, home of the Kirov Ballet and Vaganova Ballet School. He’s longed to see both in person since he was a young dancer in China.
For the first time since his defection, Cunxin returns to a communist country. And although many of the trials he describes are incidental—like the raked stage—the degree of discomfort and difficulty he faces symbolically suggests how much he’s changed and how unable he has become to conform himself to the expected mold. Having seized his freedom, in other words, this trip to Russia proves that he can never return to the cage of communism. The refusal of the Russian judges to sign his certificate merely reinforces the sense that he no longer fits or is welcome here.
Themes
By the time Cunxin leaves Russia, his back has completely seized up. But he hurries off to Chile for his next engagement with the Houston Ballet before returning to Texas to start rehearsing with Mary McKendry, who has accepted Ben’s invitation to join the company. Cunxin is again impressed with Mary’s technical, perfectionistic dance style. One of the first moves they’re supposed to practice together is the “fish dive,” a challenging move that Cunxin loves but perform adequately with his injured back. Mary encourages him to see a doctor, who diagnoses him with three herniated discs and prescribes bed rest. This terrifies Cunxin, who is now certain he will miss his opportunity to dance with Mary. He also worries he may never dance again.
Many years earlier, Teacher Xiao warned Cunxin about taking on too much and risking his health for dancing, but this is the first time that Cunxin has injured himself. While the book doesn’t explore the circumstances fully other than describing the fall during the competition, readers should note how intensely he has poured himself into dancing in the wake of his defection and divorce. Dancing has brought him success and freedom, but it’s also become an unhealthy coping mechanism. In the arc of Cunxin’s life, this injury warns him to address some of the root causes of his unhappiness, including his loneliness and his excessively high standards.
Themes
Determined to salvage his career, Cunxin applies himself as diligently to recuperating as he ever did to dancing. He often misses his niang during those three lonely months of recovery. But Mary visits him frequently, encouraging him to branch out in his reading and inspiring a newfound love of English literature. He sets a goal for himself: he wants to be strong enough to dance with the Ballet in New York City in October. And, through his dedication (and with the help of an amazing masseur) Cunxin meets his goal.
Although Cunxin’s drive to excel contributed to his injury, he quickly realizes that he can apply the same energy to recovery. And, with his laser-sharp focus on success, he succeeds in meeting his goals, as always. Importantly, although he misses his mother very much during this period, Mary begins to fill in that hole, suggesting a greater role in Cunxin’s life to come.
Themes
