Mao's Last Dancer

The novel ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ by Li Cunxin explores various themes. Two of the main themes displayed are perseverance and self-discipline. Perseverance and self-discipline are significant themes in the novel because they were the attributes that enabled Cunxin to amount to great success.

The novel, “Mao’s Last Dancer”, was written by Li Cunxin. It tells his riveting tale of growing up in a poor family of six boys, living in a village in China under Mao’s reign. It goes on to share his eventual defection to the United States as an artistic dancer. His childhood was filled with both hardships and joys. But both helped him to grow as a resilient person to achieve once-thought impossible goals.

As a child, Waverly didn’t enjoy following her mother’s rules and Chinese tradition. At that age she would’ve loved to get rid of her Chinese features. But as an adult, Waverly seemed concerned that she would fit in with the locals during her trip to China, and upset when her mother told her that the people would know that she was a foreigner. Instead of trying to reject her culture as before, Waverly seems to want “the best of both worlds”, a way to embrace both her American lifestyle and Chinese culture. However, her mother, Lindo Jong, deemed the attempt at balance “too late” and describes her daughter as “American-made”.

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

THESIS - When evaluating Arnold “Junior” Spirit from Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Jin Wang from Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, similarities radiate in both characters as their disparity in race deem the two of them as outcasts in the entirety of society. In addition to their lack of social interactions, their uniformity in their impulsive decisions cost them each a dear friend. Although Junior and Jin are quite similar, they share differences in the way Junior tries bettering himself by fitting into both his Indian and Reardan culture whereas Jin changes himself in every possible way to become Americanized.

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection,”Henry J.M Houwen once stated. In the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Jin Wang and the monkey king experiences rejection as they interact with society. In the short story Linh Lai by Rebecca Rosenblum, Linh Lai helplessly suffers rejection as she struggles to meet her uncle and Mr. Koenburg’s expectations. In the short story Tapka by David Bezomozgis, people are rejected because of their differences. Rejection by society exists in Tapka and Linh Lai, whereas American Born Chinese incorporates both rejections by themselves and by society. Stories show that people are rejected by society,

In this scene Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe was over. The next scene then turned into an announcer announcing two atom bomb that the Americans had dropped on Japan. From that point on Japan was suing for peace. Which later turned into the emperor surrendering his power. Then lead Pu Yi as emperor of Manchukuo. An outrage in Japan struck families were bring lynched out in the streets. “The city was in chaos” (pg.161). It got bad that at night gunshots and frequent screams for help was all they could hear. After Jinzhou many Japanese deaths were occurring. Some poisoned themselves, other were committing suicide, and some were lynched. Some Japanese family left their babies on doorsteps in the hope that someone would save them.

Gene Luen Yang presents a graphic novel, it talk about three different stories that are separate and yet related to each other. The way he presents the characters helps him to show his audience stereotypes in American born Chinese. The author uses the three stories and revolves around people working towards their cultural identity. He successfully creates a story about racial identity, and he does not merely concentrate on stereotypes that define the American-born Chinese.

The fact that the book, American Born Chinese, was written as a graphic novel is no coincidence. Author Gene Yang had this purposely done to help the reader understand what he was trying to convey. Through the use of all different comic making techniques, Yang creates a masterpiece of a graphic novel which vividly conveys the message of growing up as a Chinese immigrant in America and the struggles they face so they can successfully assimilate in America. Probably the most effective technique that Yang uses, the use of realistic vs conceptual world allows Yang to successfully convey the stereotypes that Chinese people are given and how Chinese immigrants feel about them. Throughout the book, Yang keeps the drawings of each character simple

Mao is a villain with good intentions, from killing forty-seven million people by working, starving, and beating them to death. He set back china years and possibly ruined the superpower. Mao lost the cold war, industrialized China through harsh work conditions, and caused the Cultural revolution.

The urge of flight is caused by the inability to stay in an environment of oppression such as Communist exclusion or Religious forcing of sexism. In a comparative study of Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer and Maryanne Satrapi's Persepolis reveal the complications that come with flight ultimately showing that the benefits of flight are accompanied with risks and challenges. The main reason presented as a challenge of flight is the initial complication that leads to the flight, in these cases Ideological oppression such as Communist restrictions or Islamic sexism. These characters wish to escape this oppression in the pursuit of Freedom of expression in Art and as a woman in the West. However in the pursuit in this freedom both people face unforeseen

In Tripmaster Monkey by Maxine Kingston, the main character Wittman is a highly educated artist who searches to find a way to simultaneously express himself as an artist and fit within a community. When we meet him, he has not yet discovered how to express his art in a way that is acceptable either to the Chinese American or American communities. He is a fourth generation Chinese American who finds himself marginalized by the American community because he is viewed as Chinese, but he is also not accepted by the Chinese American community for his art because it incorporates too much of American culture. Disgusted by his lack of acceptance, Wittman at first wants to withdraw into creating his art just for creation’s sake, but then sees a way to satisfy his artistic aspirations by exploiting the desires of other Chinese Americans who want a culture that celebrates their community. He writes a play that creates a new community that embraces all of the Chinese Americans, but also celebrates all of them as individuals. Ultimately, Wittman uses his own desire to be an acclaimed playwright and accepted individual to forge a new Chinese American society within the play that celebrates everyone’s individuality, highlighting Wittman’s.

This book is a personal narrative of the author’s experiences in China during the Cultural Revolution. It is the story of her coming of age during a gruesome point in Chinese history. She points out in the epilogue that what Chairman Mao did was brainwashing, and how easy it was for people forget their personal ideals and listen to him. I believe that it was her intention to inform the public about what tragedies took place in China during the cultural revolution. In doing this is hoping to educate people about the suffering that can take place under the rule of a corrupt. She also points out in the epilogue that very few people have been punished for their crimes during the revolution so she could also have written

Ballet prince Li Cunxin English autobiography called "Mao's last dancer". The name was coupled with the cover design is very Western mind. It's the Chinese translation was turned into "dance all over the world", although the name is also appropriate for a loud, but I still prefer to call it close to the original intent of "The Last Dancer." Today saw the movie based on his autobiography made into. I have never written a film critic, so completely do not understand organization of writing. I only know that he is susceptible of this, so watching the process, inevitable tears. After reading the story of the residual sound surrounded me around for a long time. The plot is not complicated, Lee kept the letter from a poor rural family in Shandong

In 1976 Maxine Hong Kingston won the National Book Critics Circle Award for the best work of non-fiction for her book The Woman Warrior: Memories of a Girlhood among Ghosts, a novel built up from a collection of stories that draw on from Chinese folklore and myth intertwined with her own life’s experiences and episodes from her and other female family members’ life. While labelled as an autobiography, American readers enthusiastically welcomed it as work of fiction that deals with the exotic, mysterious and unfathomable China. This illustrates the why and wherefores of the many readings that this work has originated since its publication. The lack of adherence to one genre, especially autobiography, presents one of the central issues of how