Mao’s Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin
Mao’s Last Dancer, an autobiography by Li Cunxin, gives the reader the unique look at the life of a skilled ballet dancer whose dance skills began at Madame Mao’s dance school and continued overseas. Unlike the frog in the Chinese story “The Frog in the Well”, a recurring allusion throughout the book, Cunxin did not remain as the frog whose world was limited from his viewpoint within the well, for whom “the big world above remained only a dream” (p.53). He experienced life both in and out of the well. His immersion of himself into his world of ballet was similar to how he was encouraged ”to treat pirouettes like a mango” (p.238): if he were presented with a mango, he should fully experience the fruit in depth, not just eat it without slowly engaging in the process of extracting the most out of it. Readers of this book can share in tasting the hypothetical mango and life on both sides of the well. Though the world in this book may be quite different from that of the reader’s, the idea of there being more to life outside one’s well may resonate. Also, the book may provide inspiration in bringing broader perspective and attention to hardships that may make their own seem a little lighter.
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The story has also been made into a movie.
