by Li Cunxin (Author)
From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice. Watch a Video
Format: Paperback
Pages: 528
Edition: Mti
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Published: 27 Jul 2010
ISBN 10: 0425240304
ISBN 13: 9780425240304
Mix Billy Elliot with Torn Curtain and you'll have some of the tale in very broad outline...well-paced...full of adventures. --Kirkus Reviews
Fascinating reading...unfolds with honesty, humor, and a quiet dignity. This book has wide appeal, for it concerns not only a dancer's coming of age in a turbulent time but also individual strength, self-discovery, and the triumph of the human spirit. --Library Journal
The facts of his life are astonishing on their own, but what makes Li Cunxin's engrossing autobiography so captivating is his enthusiastic retelling of every twist and turn. --Vogue (Australia)