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Intro
Born into a poor family during a time of desperate poverty and famine in China, Li Cunxin grows up close to his niang, dia, his brothers Cuncia, Cunyuan, Cunmao, Cunsang, Cunfar, and Jing Tring, and other members of his extended family including Na-na, Fourth Uncle, and Fourth Aunt. Although the family rarely has enough food to eat or coal to keep warm, Cunxin holds many happy memories from his childhood, thanks to the close bonds he shares with his family and friends. At age eight, he begins primary school, where Teacher Song indoctrinates him and the other children with the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.
When Cunxin is 11, Teacher Song points him out to Chen Leung, an instructor from Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy recruiting students to train as ballet dancers. Seeing a chance to escape the peasant’s limited, impoverished life, Cunxin eagerly accepts a scholarship for the school. Initially, he feels very homesick and lonely at the academy, but he soon makes friends with Zhu Yaoping, the Bandit, Chong Xiongjun, and Liu Fengtian. Inspiring teachers, especially Teacher Xiao, take Cunxin under their wings. After an underwhelming first year, Cunxin discovers the inner drive, strength, and resilience to become a great dancer.
By the time he is ready to graduate seven years later, many things have changed in China. Chairman Mao has died, and Chinese society has reacted against the changes and chaos of the Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping has become leader of the country. He reopens China to the west, and foreign dancers, led by Ben Stevenson, visit the academy. When Ben invites the academy to select two students to study with him in Houston over the summer, Cunxin and another student named Zhang Weiqiang are chosen.
Cunxin immediately falls in love with America, a land of freedom, opportunity, and luxuries he can barely comprehend after his impoverished childhood. When Chinese cultural Minister Wang grants permission for him to return and study with Ben again, he feels like the luckiest person in the world. But then Minister Wang changes his mind. Cunxin has little recourse; in China, his life and his art belong to the Party. But he persists until he secures permission to return to America. There, he meets, falls in love with, and marries an American woman named Elizabeth Mackey. Then, with the help of immigration lawyer Charles Foster, he defects from China.
Although Cunxin’s marriage and defection cause some trouble for himself and others, he eventually regains his footing and embarks on a successful professional career with the Houston Ballet. After a period of growing difficulties, he and Elizabeth divorce. He longs to see his family again, and eventually, George and Barbara Bush, whom he knows through Ben, help his parents secure visas for a visit to the United States. Soon afterwards, Cunxin begins dancing with Australian ballerina Mary McKendry. They fall in love and eventually marry.
As Cunxin thrives in his personal and professional lives, he deeply misses the family he left behind in China so many years before. With the help of the Chinese consulate and his friends in American politics, he finally secures permission for a visit. He returns home to find a country that has improved a lot in some ways since Deng Xiaoping’s ascension. But in other ways, Chinese politics and culture continue to limit the lives of his brothers and their families. At the end of a weeks-long visit, Cunxin reflects on his life as he and Mary fly home. He feels grateful for the opportunities life has given him thus far and hopeful for opportunities yet to come, for both himself and his family.
