Li Cunxin
Mao's Last Dancer

“A powerful story of the human spirit.”

Li Cunxin (pronounced “Lee Schwinsin”) is a remarkable man borne of a remarkable story. He has published a best-selling book about his life. He writes most appreciatively of his loving mother. He recounts the family values, and in particular integrity, that he learned in poverty stricken China. He tells of how the sixth of seven sons born to peasants grew up worshipping Mao Zedong before defecting to the United States.

Li was born into "bitter poverty". There was never enough food to go around in his family's two-bedroom home 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, and he was chosen to study ballet and serve Chairman Mao’s revolution – this turn of events would change his life forever. By the time Lee was 18, he was offered a scholarship at the Houston Ballet Academy and a chance to see America for the first time. Everything about America overwhelmed him, and so the West's seduction of Li Cunxin had begun.

Li was offered a soloist contract with the Houston Ballet and continued to dance and went on to become a principal dancer. A few years later, he fell in love with another Houston Ballet dancer, Australian born Mary McKendry. They married in 1987, and in 1995 moved to Melbourne where Li became a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet.

By now 34, an age at which many dancers have already hung up their shoes, Li was wondering how he would continue to support his two (soon to be three) children when his dancing career ended. He began studying at the Australian Securities Institute with a view to becoming a stockbroker. For his final two years with the Australian Ballet, this meant rising at 5am to start barre work, then racing to the stock exchange by 8am to study until noon. 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 is now a senior manager at one of the biggest stockbroking firms in Australia).

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 33rd printing and has since been published in over 20 countries. 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.

As one of most highly sought after motivational and inspirational speakers, Li’s unique real life story works with corporations and conferences’, their various themes and objectives.