#maoslastdancer

Feeling the reds. Some of my favourite reads ever 📚❤️🤓 #internationalliterature #literature #books #book #bookstagram #reading #readinglist #literaturestudent #words #hardback #paperback #iamreading #tantwaneng #gardenofeveningmists #malaya #lioneldavidson #theroseoftibet #tibet #licunxin #maoslastdancer #china #australia #asia #red #redaesthetic #beautifulcovers #pursuingtheplanetthroughliterature

Reading diversely is a goal that a lot of us have this year and here's some of the books on my TBR for #DAreadathon! I've started reading #MaosLastDancer and it's such a great non-fiction account of living in Communist China. ☁️ Have you read any of these books? Which ones are you excited to read? #diverserecs #diversebooks

Have you ever heard of this book? It's absolutely incredible. It's the story of a boy who was chosen out of the millions of people in his province to be raised up as a dancer for Madame Mao's political ballets. Like many other stories from Li Cunxin's era in China, the struggles and hardships that he overcomes to be a world-famous dancer are overwhelming and leave me with a gnawing feeling of incredulity in my stomach. Dystopian fiction writers need to try harder if they want to come up with more stirring stuff than is found in Chinese biographies from the last century, that's for sure. :)

OMG Li Cunxin (author of Mao's Last Dancer) tweeted me back.....Dead. I am dead. What a dance nerd...