Li Cunxin

Li was born into "bitter poverty" in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao. He barely wore shoes until he started school at the age of nine, and until eleven he slept top to toe with his parents and younger brother. But, he is quick to point out, it was a happy upbringing in a home full of love.

One day, a delegation from Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy arrived at Li's school, part of a provincial tour aimed at finding young people they could whisk away to study ballet and serve in Chairman Mao's revolution. "He asked us all to stand up and sing" he recalls. "As we sang, the four representatives came down the aisles and selected a girl with big eyes, straight teeth and a pretty face. They passed me without taking any notice, but just as they were walking out of our classroom, our teacher Song hesitated. She tapped the last gentleman from Beijing on the shoulder and pointed at me. `What about that boy?' she said. The gentleman from Beijing glanced in my direction. `Okay, he can come too,' he said in an offhand manner."

And so began Li's dance career. He was 11 when he left home to begin a harsh training regime at the Beijing Dance Academy. There was no music, no museums - just a bare field, hard labour." Li hated dancing during his first two years in Beijing and pined for his family. But fear of what he would return to kept him going, and he took to heart his mother's advice: "Go and do something special with your life. Don't look back!" At first his grades were poor, but within a year his astounding capacity for work became apparent. He practised his turns at night by candlelight, and hopped up and down stairs with sandbags tied to his ankles to build his strength.

Li was 18 when another delegation came scouting for talent. This time it included Ben Stevenson, part of the first US cultural delegation to communist China, offering two students a summer school scholarship to the Houston Ballet Academy. Li was chosen.

Li’s story, "Mao's Last Dancer", was published in 2003 and immediately hit the top of Australia’s best sellers list and won the Book of the Year Award. It is in the 23rd printing and has since been published in over 20 countries. In its first year it has already sold over 160,000 copies.

His book is a unique story of determination, passion, integrity and love. It is an empowering tale with so many lessons for all of us. An experience to be cherished.