Li Cunxin

Before you fly, you have to be free This is my story. Here is my recollection of those years growing up in Mao's China. It is my family's history. It is my journey, from my earliest memories, through discovering dance, to my life in the West. History may record things differently, others may too,...

The true story of a poor Chinese peasant boy who, plucked unsuspectingly at the age of ten from millions of others across the land to be trained as a ballet dancer, turned the situation to his advantage to become one of the world's greatest ballet stars. Li tells his story with charm and simplicity,...

The extraordinary biography of a young Chinese peasant boy who emerged from abject poverty, defected to the USA, and became principal dancer for the Houston ballet, a star in the US, friend to George and Barbara Bush, and a star of the Australian ballet as well. Is a condensed edition for children. ...

Raised in a desperately poor village during the height of China's Cultural Revolution, Li Cunxin's childhood revolved around the commune, his family and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. Until, that is, Madame Mao's cultural delegates came in search of young peasants to study ballet at the academy in ...

This is the true story of a poor Chinese peasant boy who, plucked unsuspectingly at the age of ten from millions of others across the land to be trained as a ballet dancer, turned the situation to his advantage to become one of the world's greatest ballet stars. Simply told, with charm, humour and c...

Through dance a poor Chinese peasant child found a new life, the frog had escaped the well and could marvel at the expanse of sky. The story of Li Cunxin who danced his way to a new life.

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 l...