Tales from China

RD had to read Mao's Last Dancer for school. I had been wanting to watch the movie since last year. I decided I'd borrow the book from the library myself and read the book before I watched the movie. I got the Young Readers' Edition just like what RD had from school. I figured I was going to watch the movie anyway so there was no point going for the long-winded literary version, if such existed.

It was quite a good autobiography (I hope the movie does it justice). It is a story of a young Chinese boy, Li Cunxin, who was born into a poor family but had the good fortune of being selected to join one of Mrs. Mao's cultural programs, and train as a dancer.

The first part of the book is about his hard life as a child. The second part focused mainly on his training as a dancer in Beijing. And the last part was about his experience in the West which led to his eventual defection to the States.

I particularly liked the stories he incorporated in the book which I suppose are told to Chinese children as they are growing up.

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Once there was a Chinese emperor who loved cricket fighting. Each year the Emperor required the governors in every province to donate their best crickets. To win the Emperor's favour, each governor ordered his people to search for the best crickets all over the land.

Under a mountain in a small village lived a poor family with one ten-year old son. They named him Brave Hero. His father was a courageous hunter and his mother was kind. He was the sunshine in their eyes. One day the father came home from the mountains with his biggest catch, a beautiful cricket. He named the cricket Brave Hero, after his boy. The father was relieved -- he would have been fined heavily if he hadn't found a cricket within twenty-four hours. The young boy begged his father to allow him to look at it. At first his father said no, but the boy kept begging and eventually he relented. Just as the boy opened the bamboo tube in which the cricket was kept, the cricket jumped out and hopped away. Their rooster nearby ate the cricket. The boy's father was in such a rage over the loss of the cricket that he ordered his son to find another one or else never return. The poor boy went into the mountains. They found him next day lying on a big rock, almost dead. The father cried his heart out. As he picked up his son's limp body, a small and ugly cricket jumped on the boy's pale face. The father brushed the cricket off and carried the boy home.

The parents wept over their dying boy. They placed him a coffin in their living room waiting for the last breath to leave him. As they prayed in front of the coffin, they heard the faint sound of a cricket. It was the same ugly cricket the father had brushed away from the boy's face before. The father threw it outside.

Moments later the Governor came to collect the cricket and the father told him that he had none. Just as the angry Governor was ordering his guards to burn down the house, they heard a cricket singing from the house. Its sound was strong and loud. They followed the sound to a bamboo tube and found the same little cricket inside. The Governor thought the Hunter was playing a joke with him when he saw this ugly little cricket and he threw it towards the rooster. Just as the rooster was about to eat the cricket, it jumped onto the rooster's crown and after a brief struggle the rooster dropped dead. The Governor was very impressed. He asked the Hunter if he had a name for the cricket. The hunter told him that he called it Brave Hero. Brave Hero quickly became the number one fighter in the kingdom. He never lost a fight. He even beat the Emperor's fighting roosters. The Emperor treasured him.

Back in the mountain village, the boy was still breathing. As long as their son breathed the couple would keep him lying in their living room. As the cricket-fighting season drew to a close, the Emperor ordered the Governor to reward the original finder of the cricket with gold and silver because the cricket had given him such pleasure. But material things could not bring their son back to his sorrowful parents.

One day, Brave Hero mysteriously disappeared form his royal cage in the palace. On that same day the boy became alive again. The little cricket was Brave Hero's spirit. He had turned himself into the cricket to save his family.

I loved this tale. I loved the boy's bravery and wished that I too could turn myself into a cricket and save my family from poverty. What a shame Chairman Mao didn't like cricket fights.

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'Sit down, Cunxin,' Teacher Xiao said again. 'I want to tell you a story ...'

One of the guards in an emperor's palace went to his teacher. He wanted his teacher to make him the best archer in the land. The teacher told him to go away. The guard returned every day and begged his teacher to teach him. Day after day, week after week, month after month the guard came. He came in the rain and he came in the snow. After one whole year, the teacher was moved by the guard's perseverance and determination and finally accepted him as his student. The teacher asked him to pick up a heavy bow and hold it up. After a few minutes the guard's arms started shaking with tiredness. The teacher made him carry very heavy loads in each hand every day. After a while, when he picked up the heavy bow again it felt like a feather in his hands. One day he asked his teacher, when would he teach him how to shoot an arrow? The teacher told him that he wasn't ready yet and instead asked him if he could see anything far into the sky. He looked up and looked as hard and as far as he could but couldn't see anything. His teacher told him to look at a tiny little spider in a far-away tree that he could hardly see. He kept focusing on it with one eye at a time. Gradually he began to see the spider clearly and eventually when he used both his eyes the little spider seemed as large as his shield. His teacher said that he was now ready to teach him how to shoot an arrow. Soon the guard became the best archer in the land.

'Remember, Cunxin, nothing is impossible,' Teacher Xian said.

I'll tell you if the movie is worth watching.