Previous
Chapter 6: Chairman Mao’s Classroom
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
During Cunxin’s third year at school, representatives from the Party-sponsored Beijing Dance Academy come to audition children from the village. At Teacher Song’s suggestion, one representative (later identified as Chen Leung) selects Cunxin. In the school headmaster’s frigid office, the representatives order the children to strip to their underwear, only to discover that Cunxin is the only child wearing any. All the selected children take turns using his set. To test the children’s flexibility, the representatives wrench their bodies into uncomfortable positions. This causes Cunxin agony, but, determined to maintain his pride and dignity, he grits his teeth and refuses to scream like some of the other children. Only one boy—Cunxin—and one girl make it to the next round of auditions.
Although subsequent events in the book will show—in great detail—how much hard work and personal effort it takes for Cunxin to succeed in the world of Chinese ballet, his efforts would mean nothing without this initial opportunity, which comes to him as if by chance. Neither Teacher Song nor the book ever provides a rationale for why she pointed Cunxin out to Chen Leung. The discovery in the headmaster’s office that only Cunxin has any underwear points yet again to the general and crushing poverty of the village. But it also points to his niang’s love and hard work; despite all that she and her family suffer, she still makes sure that they stay clean and neatly dressed.
Themes
Niang and Dia pay little attention at first, certain that no one in their family has that much artistic talent. Cunxin’s friends tease him. But he’s secretly excited: this may be his chance to escape his deep well. The poses of the second audition—at the commune level—are harder and more painful than the first. Cunxin grits his teeth and smiles through it all, even though the representatives tear both his hamstrings in the process. He proceeds through country, city, and provincial auditions, although at one audition the scar on his arm nearly disqualifies him. The representatives test the children’s knowledge of music and Party ideology. They also examine their family histories, disqualifying whose ancestors in the past three generations were wealthy or educated.
At this point, Cunxin has neither the knowledge nor the experience to “try hard” in the conventional sense, although the auditions do involve an immense amount of psychological and physical effort on his part. The instructors’ auditions preview the academy’s methods in ways that point back to one of the book’s central complaints about the Chinese Communist Party, especially under the leadership of Chairman Mao and Madame Mao. In the book’s view, the Party and its leaders harm people in their efforts to make everyone conform to their ideology. Those who can’t be made to fit into the Party’s—or the dance academy’s—mode, are cast aside.
Themes
Days and weeks pass without word from Beijing, and Cunxin’s hopes dim. He wishes he could cut off his scarred arm, convinced it cost him his chance. But then, an entourage of village, commune, county, and city Party officials descend on the Li family home one day with the tremendous news that Li Cunxin has been selected to attend Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. Niang tells Cunxin how happy it makes her that he will escape their hard, impoverished life. It’s an incredible opportunity: Cunxin is one of just 15 students hand-picked from the more than 70 million people living in his province. Soon it seems like everyone in the village is stopping by to congratulate him and speculate about what his new life will be like.
Cunxin endured the pain and suffering of the auditions hoping that they would give him the boost he needs to escape his life. He hopes to be different from the little frog who never reaches the big, surface world despite all his frenzied jumping. And, ultimately, he receives the opportunity to escape in the form of an invitation to attend Madame Mao’s political and artistic academy. The scale of his good luck is hard to fathom.
Themes
Cuncia comes home from for Chinese New Year, a joyous time marred only by an accident with a firecracker that nearly tears off one of Cunxin’s fingers. His family splurges on a tetanus shot, not wanting him to get sick and lose his opportunity. On the night of his last dinner at home, however, Cunxin is too sad at the thought of leaving his family that he can barely eat. He escapes the house and wanders the dark streets. He tells himself he should be happy, and in a way, he is. But sadness and worries about how lonely he will feel in Beijing overwhelm him. Later, when he climbs into bed next to Jing Tring, he wishes he could tuck his family into a pocket and take them with him. In the morning, when he and Cuncia set out for the train station, he bursts into uncontrollable tears.
Although Cunxin recognizes the momentous good luck that has offered him a chance to escape his life of poverty and hunger, he still hesitates when he thinks about leaving the only home he’s ever known and—more importantly—his family’s love and support. They are the only thing of value that he has had, and they have helped him not just to survive his childhood, but to do it with his head held high. He owes everything to them, even this opportunity, since they have taught him to work hard and show the respect that have earned him positive attention from his teachers.
Themes
Get the entire Mao’s Last Dancer LitChart as a printable PDF.
Early the next morning, Cunxin boards a train for the first time in his life. He watches Cuncia disappear into the crowd through tearful eyes. The train quickly speeds into a land of unfamiliar sights and even smells. At the halfway point of the journey, the students descend from the train to stretch their legs. The worldlier city children buy themselves treats while the rural kids, like Cunxin, watch. Back on the train, the students are allowed to visit the dining car—usually open to Party officials only—because of their affiliation with the Beijing Dance Academy. There, they devour five courses in quick succession—richer and more flavorful food than Cunxin has ever eaten at once.
As Cunxin travels from Qingdao to Beijing, the changes in the countryside match his voyage from a life of rural poverty and hardship to the relatively privileged life he will enjoy in Beijing. The children from urban centers seem more privileged than Cunxin and the other rural children, suggesting yet again that life is unfairly difficult for China’s rural population, no matter what Party propaganda says to the contrary. And the fact that the Party officials’ dining car has nicer food implies that they take advantage of their position to abuse the labor of the poorer classes, despite their harsh rhetoric against landlords for similar abuses in the past.
Themes
At the Beijing train station, the press and chaos of the crowd separates Cunxin from his group. A kind, Lei Feng-like soldier helps him find the Beijing Dance Academy bus. To be helpful, Cunxin turns to close the door after he boards. But it closes itself when the driver pushes a button. Surprised, Cunxin stumbles back and falls to the floor. Everyone laughs. On the floor, Cunxin considers the first cruel and impoverished 11 years of his life. Even in that deep, dark well, a tiny seed of hope in his heart kept him going. Now it takes root, promising him that everything will be all right in the end. As scary as it is to leave his Niang and Dia behind, he knows Beijing is his chance to escape the well. He won’t look back. He picks himself up off the bus floor and calmly takes his seat.
Cunxin’s early experiences in Beijing highlight how outmoded his rural childhood really is. People in the cities have access to modern conveniences that he can barely imagine. Nothing was mechanized or modernized: his family barely had electricity to power their lights. Things in China, he begins to realize, aren’t as glorious as the Party has taught him to believe, especially for peasants like himself. The significance of escaping the well becomes ever clearer as he compares the life he’s heading toward to the life he’s leaving behind. Even though this involves leaving his beloved family, it’s clear that their love continues to inspire and uplift Cunxin as he begins to take responsibility for himself.
Themes
