From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. want every one of you to remember this: never lose your pride and dignity no matter how hard life is.. --from Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin, Copyright Â© 2004 Li Cuxin, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., all rights reserved, reprinted with permission from the publisher.