Welcome to The Sydney Morning Herald. Search Box , Section Navigation , Content. When Li Cunxin was plucked from his commune school in rural China to study ballet at Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy, the frightened year-old asked his mother to go with him.

International ballet dancer-turned-stockbroker, Li Cunxin - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

With six other sons to care for, she sent Cunxin off with some advice that, more than 30 years later, he says is the best he's ever received: His mother's words propelled him through seven years' gruelling training at the dance academy, defection to the US, 16 years as one of the world's best ballet dancers, then a new career in Melbourne as a stockbroker, best-selling author and motivational speaker.

Even at times when there was no food on the table, she'd cheer us up and tell us to look at the bright side. One of the hardest periods of Cunxin's life was the first six years after he defected to America at age 20 and had no contact with his family.

The separation was broken in dramatic circumstances, when his parents flew in from China and went straight from the airport to see him dance the opening night of a performance with the Houston Ballet.

They were late and the performance was delayed for almost half an hour, during which the audience got wind of the reason. When his parents finally arrived, they walked in to a standing ovation.

Cunxin had attracted attention quite soon after he arrived in Houston as a cultural exchange student. One of the principal dancers injured his back and Cunxin was asked to fill in with only a few hours to learn the choreography.

He applied the same determination that had got him through his training schedule of six days a week, 5. His debut was a triumph and the west discovered a Chinese star.

Li Cunxin: From ballet dancer to best selling author and stockbroker | Newshub

In the final two years of his dancing career, spent as a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet after he married an Australian ballerina, Cunxin again used determination and hard work to set himself up for life after ballet. He'd train from 5am until 8am, then work and study full-time to become a stockbroker.

Cunxin, 45, says he loves broking, although it's not the same kind of passion he had for ballet. But he says giving motivational speeches, which he tries to restrict to about one a week, reminds him of being a performer on stage and having an audience respond to him. His speech-making sideline stems from the phenomenal success of his autobiography, Mao's Last Dancer, which has sold "a few hundred thousand" copies in Australia, been reprinted 34 times and published in another 20 countries.

Australian of the Year: Queensland candidate Li Cunxin - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

That, too, was a challenge, written in English during evenings, weekends and holidays from his real job. Nothing is impossible in life as long as you are willing to put the hard work in. When a delegation from the Beijing Dance Academy came to my school to select pupils. They were about to leave and my class teacher said "what about that one? It was that one short moment that changed my whole life.

The thing I am most proud of is to have a happy family. The years of separation from my parents and brothers in China when I was in America.

Getting Sophie [his eldest child] a Cochlear implant when she was four years old. She's now at a normal academic school in Melbourne. I've never thought the money I make is for me. It's always for the people I love and other causes.

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Cunxin Stock Photos & Cunxin Stock Images - Alamy

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