Who Is Mao's Last Dancer

The autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer written by Li Cunxin, is effective in raising awareness of the injustice the Chinese people experienced during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution and later communist policies in China. When Li’s parents got married in 1946, they were not living in poverty. However, when the Japanese invaded China during WWII and forced all the civilians into communes, Mao then kept these communes and the Li family lost their wealth—they faced injustice and marginalisation. The Chinese population were marginalised by Mao’s use of communist principles and propaganda. They were forced into believing Mao’s views—that the West (Capitalist countries) were filthy and bad, while China was good. Li’s visit to America was an eye-opener.

Life is the journey, the inevitable journey, and the experiences thoughout life, the journeys within the journey, are the planned and unplanned experiences that change people and are a huge part of a person’s moral and personal growth. In the novella “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, the physical journey through the Congo is parallel to the inner journey of the main character Marlow. Similarly, the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, relates on both a literal and metaphoric level to the concept of a journey. The individuals’ creation of their own direction on a journey is

“Despite our hardships, there were also joys in our childhood”. Explore the ways in which Li’s childhood was both one of great deprivations and one of great riches.

a "yellow wood" (1) when "two roads diverged" (1), that he had to make a

He told us of his mentor whom he had admired greatly was inspiring him to work harder every day. And that he was confident that his dancing would most definitely prove to be worthwhile. As long as I knew this, life in the commune could never be as hard as I

“The Road Not Taken” is a poem about how it is important to make a choice in life. In the beginning of the poem, the man is hating that he had to be stuck with the road he chose instead of being able to take both paths. The man tried to look farther down the paths that he could’ve chosen to go down, but the man was only able to see to the point that the road curved and was no longer visible. Stanza # 2, the man indicated that he took the road he felt looked better and could’ve been better because

China during the Cultural Revolution was a place where you were told what to do, and what to say. Today I will be speaking to you about Mao’s Last Dancer, the film adaption of the autobiography of Li Cunxin. To begin with, I will speak about the Cultural Revolution in China, where the story is set.

Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken” describes a traveler faced with a choice of which one of two roads to travel. He knows not where either road might lead. In order to continue on his journey, he can pick only one road. He scrutinizes both roads for the possibilities of where they may take him in his travels. Frost's traveler realizes that regret is inevitable. Regardless of his choice, he knows that he will miss the experiences he might have encountered on the road not taken.

Discuss the validity of this statement. In your essay response, you should discuss how composers of non-fiction texts present their point of view with specific reference to your non-fiction text.

?The Road Not Taken? (1916) tells of someone faced with two of life?s decisions however only one can be chosen. Whichever road is taken will be final and will determine the direction that their life takes. Frost drives this poem by a calm and collective narrative, spoken by the traveler of the diverged roads. Who is speaking with himself trying to convince himself of which road is the better choice. Frost wrote this poem using standard, modern language.

He was selected by Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy to become a classical ballet dancer at the age of 11. The moment dramatically changed his peasant life forever. Somewhere deep down inside he knows that his "family's unconditional love will always keep him forward" and their courage pushes him onward and upward.

In the graphic novel American Born Chinese (2006) by Gene Luen Yang and the full-length autobiography Mao’s Last Dancer (2003) by Li Cunxin, both writers use a range of stylistic features and generic conventions to create a memorable text. A memorable text consists of elements or issues present in a text, which the reader finds notable or striking. This can be due to a number of factors, particularly features of the text that the author has altered intentionally to evoke certain audience emotions. The dominant idea of metamorphosis or transformation presented in ABC are very much memorable as it coincides with concepts of ‘fitting-in’ and shape-shifting into various social/cultural norms that are deemed in mainstream society as acceptable.

Li always made the most of the opportunities he had, even when it involved moving away from his family in order to have a better life. One of the toughest decisions Li was asked to make was to go away to the dance academy. This was a tough decision for Li to make, because he was only 11 years old and it would mean that he would have to move away from his family. He was hesitant about at first but after his mum said to him, “My dear son, this is your chance to escape from this cruel world,” he decided to take the opportunity, this was a big part of why Li never gave up when things got difficult.

That had changed from the support his family gave him and now loves ballet. Li Cunxin had felt guilty, he was one of the few that was chosen to go to the dancer academy but the problem was that he hated dancing, he had no motivation to dance or to try. Li Cunxin knew and recognized that he needed to change “I knew I needed to work harder.” (P.285). He started to make a change in his practicing, doing it five times a day, because of this his dancing had improved dramatically and knew that this extra work was having an effect “I had made a fundamental change in my dancing” (P.287) After Chairman Mao had died, he was shown a western film on ballet. This film had changed Li’s attitude towards ballet. In the example from the novel: “From that moment on I loved ballet with a passion.” (P.209), he also so resized the potential ballet had. “For the first time in my life, I saw how truly exquisite ballet could be.” (P.209). Li Cunxin hard work and change of attitude made him a great dancer and this is a factor that had helped change his future. This change of attitude affected his future because he was chosen to go to the United States where his point of view of China was

The Road Not Taken is a twenty-line poem written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABAAB. This poem starts with the author walking through the woods. He comes to a fork in the path and is torn by which path to take...does he take the