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Mao's Last Dancer
Mao's Last Dancer
Young Readers Edition
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BIOGRAPHY
Li was born into utter poverty in Mao’s communist China, at the age of
11 he was selected to train in Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy. And so
began Li's journey. The 7 years of harsh training regime at the Beijing
Dance Academy taught him discipline, resilience, determination and
perseverance. Li’s astounding drive and relentless hard work made him one
of the best dancers China has produced.
When he was 18, Li was awarded one of the first cultural scholarships to
go to America, and subsequently been offered a soloist contract with the
Houston Ballet. Two years later, Li defected to the West in a dramatic
media storm, which involved the then Vice President, Mr George Bush Snr.
He then went on to become one of the best dancers in the world, won two
silver and a bronze medal at three International Ballet Competitions. In
1995, Li and his family moved to Australia where Li danced his last three
and half years as a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet.
For the final two years of his dancing, Li studied finance at the
Australian Securities Institute with a view of becoming a stockbroker.
This meant rising at five in the morning to start his daily ballet
practise, then racing to the stock exchange by eight. By the time he
joined the rest of the company's dancers for afternoon rehearsals; he had
already put in a full day's work. Li made a successful career transition
from ballet to finance in 1999. He is a senior manager at one of the
largest stockbroking firms in Australia.
The rich story of Li’s inspirational life is recounted in his memoir Mao's
Last Dancer, which was published by Penguin-Australia in September 2003. It
quickly rose to No. 1 on the Australian Non-Fiction Best-Seller List and was
named in Amazon.com's Break-Out Books list after only several weeks after its
US release before receiving the Christopher Award for Literature. His book
went on to win the Book of the Year Award in Australia and was short-listed
for several other prestigious literacy awards. It’s over 50 reprints. Li’s
book has been translated into several foreign languages and is sold in over
30 countries worldwide. In May 2005, the Young Readers’ Edition of Mao’s Last
Dancer has been released in Australia. There is also a picture book of his
story called The Peasant Prince, it's beautifully illustrated by the talented
painter Anne Spudvilas. The Academy Award winning director Bruce Beresford
(Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies, Breaker Morant), producer and screenplay
writer of the film Shine, Jane Scott and Jan Sardi respectively, have teamed
up to produce a award winning featured film also named Mao's Last Dancer.
Li has received Shepherd Centre's 2009 Australian Father of the Year Award
and has been Honoured a Doctorate for his contribution to Arts and Literature
by the Australian Catholic University. |