The sun slants in through arched windows onto wooden floors. With its high ceilings, rugs and paintings, it’s a beautiful room in a grand old house in Brisbane. A house that signals success. Li Cunxin and his wife of 36 years, Mary Li, sit tightly together on a linen sofa, her hand on his shoulder, an undeniable physical closeness. Li doesn’t take any of this for granted. Not the house, the family, or the superstar career as a ballet dancer. For him “everything is a bonus miracle”.
The author of Mao’s Last Dancer, a book that sold millions of copies and was made into a famous film, has never forgotten the poverty of his childhood in China, the “total desperation” on his mother’s face as she starved herself so one of her seven sons could have another mouthful. That indelible image is what has driven him all of his life.
Tens of millions of people died of famine and disease in China between 1958 and 1962; his family struggled “desperately” for survival. As a young boy he would send messages to the gods on pieces of paper attached to his kite, asking them to get him out so he could help his family.
“In some ways it’s a fairytale,” he says, looking around the lovely light-filled room. “I still have to pinch myself thinking, is
