Mao's last dancer

A friend gave me a ticket to watch movie “Mao’s Last Dancer”. I went after work. The story of a ballet dancer from China to USA is so touched. The movie is based on autobiography of Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American girl. The procedure of his stay in USA worked very hard. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet. At the end of movie, audience were very touched, I heard clapping around.

The movie showed the screen back and force, China and USA. The thread of Li’s life, where he grew up, how to become a dancer and turned excellent, how he got to know about USA and how he tried to stay in USA, how he became a star.

There are two levels successful in movie by comparison.

The first level contract is visual, class ballet vs. China’s living environment of regular people. Heavy timing on stage performance of ballet, we enjoy the beautiful music and ballet, very elegant and classic when Li performed as leading role on stage. On other screens, Li grew up in the countryside of China, his school, his parents, his village. Then he was luckily selected to Beijing Art School, heavy loaded training, politics, cry at behind. His parents were happy for him to have a good life, have enough to eat, no hungry.

The second level contract is sprite level of two countries, China vs. USA. When Li came to USA at the beginning, he was in caution about everything. The gifts that Ben bought for him, he returned for refusing influence. The words like I do not like President, he would check around if others heard to cause trouble. The boss of Chinese restaurant was an enemy in his “political eyes”. While American are acceptable, even he was loved by an American girl. He feels free, loves the country. He wanted to stay. The peak was in the Chinese General Console in Houston. He was kidnapped to force him return to China, ignored he was married, ignored his wife, ignored his lawyer and other visitors on site. I admire the brave of Liz, she insisted to stay with him when General console asked others to leave, wanted to speak to Li only. In my memory, government’s order should be obeyed, over personal’s desire.