PUBLIC TRUSTEE'S CLAIM.

PUBLIC TRUSTEE'S CLAIM. (Before Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M.) Further evidence it, the case, in which the Public Trustee, administrator of the estate of Ah Chong deceased, claimed from Mark Maxton, commission agent, of Greytown North, the sum of £I18 17s. 5d., was heard before Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court yesterday. The defendant Maxton carried out certain business matters for the deceased Chinaman, and it is alleged that when Ah Chong died, he (the defendant) received instructions to have the body embalmed and sent to China. Accordingly the body was dispatched, in the charge of a relative of the deceased. The total cost of embalming the body, and sending it to China, was £I88 17s. 5d., which amount was taken from the estate of the deceased. After the body was on its way to China, the Public. Trusteo stepped in, and alleged that the sum of £I88 17s. 5d. belonged to the estate, and that Maxton was bound to account for it to the Public Trustee. Hence the present action.
After hearing the evidence of the Chinese and the defendant Maxton, his Worship reserved decision. Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1763, 30 May 1913, Page 3

Leap Of Faith

01/10/2012

Introduced by David Wenham

This week Australian Story tracks Li Cunxin - once one of the world's best known dancers - as he embarks on a high stakes return to the ballet world after 15 years as a stockbroker.
Li Cunxin is known as 'Mao's Last Dancer' through the best selling book and movie of the same name.
At the age of 11 he was plucked from an impoverished family in rural China to become one of the most acclaimed dancers in the world.
He ultimately settled in Australia with his dancer wife Mary McKendry and took on an new career in stockbroking to better support his family.
Now, he's back in a new job as Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet. It's seen as a gamble because he has no track record as a choreographer.
Australian Story cameras have been filming behind the scenes in the lead up to Li Cunxins first big test - the launch of the new season...

Leap Of Faith - Transcript

PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT: Monday, 1 October , 2012 

DAVID WENHAM, PRESENTER: Hello, I’m David Wenham. Tonight’s Australian Story is about a family friend, dancer Li Cunxin. He’s also known as 'Mao’s Last Dancer' after the book and film of his life. After a glittering international career he moved to Australia and stopped dancing. Now, after more 15 years, Li's back in the ballet studio. This is Li Cunxin’s Australian Story.

LI CUNXIN, BALLET DANCER: I always refer back to a wonderful story my father kept telling us as a child. It was about this little frog born into a deep well with very little sunshine, occasionally star and moon to experience so he didn’t know there’s a much bigger and better world up there. Until one day a land frog above told him there’s a bigger and a much better world up there. And for me, when I heard that story as a child, I wondered if I was that unfortunate little frog born into a limited environment, into a terrible life. And so I aspired from that moment onwards to maybe a chance to be able to get out the deep well, to be able to experience the better world. In my heart, there is always a sense of longing for ballet.

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: His passion for dance never left. He doesn’t feel rusty or out of date at all. He has such desire to reconnect with the dance world.

LI CUNXIN: I think that fire was always there. Wasn’t even a seed, it was a fire. And even-eventually it’s like a volcano – just erupted!

NATHANAEL COOPER, ‘THE COURIER MAIL’ ARTS EDITOR: There will be people queuing up just to see Li. He has that celebrity about him. But there’s also going to be enormous interest from the dance community, from the ballet lovers in Queensland as to what he’s going to bring for his first season.

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: There’ll be opinions about this season straight away. There is definitely more of a magnifying glass over our organisation because Li hasn’t done the job before. A lot of people love Queensland Ballet just the way it is and until you present the next year’s season, there will always be some uncertainty and people concerned about are going to still to do the things that I love, and are you not? And this is too much change.

FEMALE QUEENSLAND BALLET SUPPORTER 1: Our old director Francois was absolutely wonderful, and we’re hoping for great things with this one.

FEMALE QUEENSLAND BALLET SUPPORTER 2: I want to hear what he’s got to say and how he plans the upcoming season.

FEMALE QUEENSLAND BALLET SUPPORTER 3: He was 'Mao’s Last Dancer' well, you know, let’s see what he can produce.

LI CUNXIN: Change is not necessarily a comfortable thing and I think people be able to say ‘yeah Li has put a stick in the sand’ about the kind of direction, new direction and the kind of repertoire that I’m going to bring to this company.
This is a real test for us and how can we deliver on this moment with the new director. For the last few months I felt I was still living in the clouds and had all these incredible ideas flowing through my mind: this is what I’m going to do, this is what I’m going to do on day one! (laughs) And then I come over here, my head is still spinning right now!

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: We’ve been around for over 50 years. It’s a small ensemble of 26 dancers. Well Artistic director really is the visionary behind the art, the art form and the artist. So in a dance environment they are the trainer or the coach of the dancers. We were looking to leap. We were looking to bite off more than we could chew, so to speak. And Li came in with just, he just oozed ambition for the company and possibility. And I just thought we want that; that’s what we want.

LI CUNXIN: It’s really up to me now to take the company to the next level. And the next level for me really has to be an international standard.

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: We had cake to welcome him to the administrative staff. And I said to him would you like some cake? And he said ‘I don’t have a sweet tooth'. And I said ‘oh that’s a shame’. And he said ‘yes, when we were in the school they used to give us a teaspoon of sugar in a glass of hot water once a week; that was our treat’. And here am I holding this gigantic cream-laden cupcake, and I sort of went ‘I’m sorry Li! I’m really sorry!’ And it is that thing where you forget that he’s had this amazing story.

LI CUNXIN: I was born into utter poverty in Mao’s Communist China. I was the sixth of seven peasant sons. There were over 35 to 40 million people died in China of hunger, of starvation. I’ve seen so much during my childhood of the total desperation on my mother’s face when there’s not enough food for to cook for her seven sons, when she starved herself for her sons to have another extra mouthful. Those kind of images will never leave me. Then one day this amazing opportunity came when I was virtually plucked out of the countryside to study ballet. And it was such a fateful day.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: That tiny moment really changed his entire life. If that hadn’t happened he’d have been a peasant farmer at best, probably like his parents.

LI CUNXIN: Madame Mao’s cultural advisors from the Beijing Dance Academy were led into our classroom by the head of our school. And they were there to select talents to study ballet. We knew nothing about ballet. What the hell was ballet? They passed me by without taking any notice. Just as when they were about to leave and go out the door, my class teacher said ‘excuse me, what about that one?’ And pointed at me. Amongst millions of people across China, I was one of the 44. At age 11, left my family, went to Beijing to study ballet for seven years. We were only allowed to see our families once a year.

MARY LI, WIFE: And even as a youngster, at 11 he went there, he was so dreadfully homesick. And he’s got a very wonderful mother and father, so loving. But he knew, he just knew it was the opportunity to help them.

LI CUNXIN: It was a great opportunity to get out of the deep well, that was for me. But that little frog was so lost. It was absolutely lost in a big world where, you know, ballet was so foreign. And I hated the ballet with passion the first few years, absolutely hated it. The training regime we were put through was absolutely brutal. We were forced to put one leg on the barre and we pull our body forward and the chest have to flatten on the knee, the head to touch the toes on the other end. If you didn’t get down low enough the teacher would come behind you, force his weight upon you, force your body down. I couldn’t possibly do that to my dancers today. I’ll be, you know, in jail; I’ll be in court. But you know that was the first day of my training.

NATHANAEL COOPER, ‘THE COURIER MAIL’ ARTS EDITOR: The dancers were very nervous when, when he first arrived in the building for the first day. There were nerves about what he was going to with the company. Whether he was going to still want to keep all the same dancers that had been there before or whether he wanted to change it up and bring in new dancers.

RACHAEL WALSH, PRINCIPAL DANCER: I read the book along with the rest of the world – Li’s story. Upon meeting him I think I was, I was quite star-struck. It was obvious from the first step that he had not forgotten what it was to be a dancer. And he is a dancer still I think in his heart.

LI CUNXIN: I see the, you know, my role as a multitask role. So not just be a father figure, to love them, to, you know, really nurture them, to help them, but also really demand the best out of them too. I just think, you know, for me to say – keep telling them they’re lovely, it’s not going to do the work. And you have to help them, you have to demand that discipline and that standard to be able to help them to achieve their best.
RACHAEL WALSH, PRINCIPAL DANCER: It's fun, it's challenging and yeah I find I’m, I’m learning new things every day so yeah. You can teach an old dog new tricks obviously.

LI CUNXIN: I think there is that gradual trust is emerging now. So they trust me to try things that they may not have been used to or have been taught before.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: Towards the end of his training with the dance academy in Beijing, with great determination he became the leading dancer in the school. Li was around 19 or 20 I think when he was offered a scholarship to go to America. It was most unusual for the Chinese government to actually agree for someone to go abroad to study. But they did agree, with some reluctance, and he ended up in Houston.

LI CUNXIN: I was like a child walking through a lolly shop. It was - everything was new, everything was exciting, everything was just refreshing. I had secretly fell in love with a young dancer as well. I married Elizabeth. But one thing that made me absolute realise as artist how important it was is the freedom. The freedom people enjoyed seeing the American dancers dance with such freedom in their heart. Maybe technically they were not as strong as me, but I couldn’t possibly dream of dancing with that freedom. And when the crunch time came that I have to go back to China and I find I couldn’t, I couldn’t leave Elizabeth. That time was probably the most difficult time in my life. By that time I was nearly 20, and at that young age trying to make a choice: either leave or to stay in America but potentially lose everything I loved back in China, my parents, six brothers and all the people I loved back there. I came to believe I cannot possibly help anyone let alone my family if I cannot realise my absolute best in the profession I loved. I decided to stay for my love for Elizabeth and my love for ballet.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: He decided that he would remain in America. The Chinese government then quickly kidnapped him and kept him prisoner in the Chinese embassy in Houston. And he was locked up in a top room and they were planning to put him on a plane and ship him back to Beijing.

LI CUNXIN: That's when the press got on board and then Barbara Bush and eventually vice-president Bush, even Ronald Regan, to negotiate with Deng Xiaoping to allow me to be released.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: And the Chinese caved in. He was released and could stay in America.

LI CUNXIN: Elizabeth and I we were both too young really and it was impossible for that marriage to actually survive.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: Once he stayed of course his career then soared because he was really I mean he was their principal dancer.

LI CUNXIN: I danced on the most prestigious stages, in front of the presidents, prime ministers, royalties, you know name it.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: He was very upset, needless to say about not seeing the family. But he couldn’t really contact them. He was frightened of getting in touch with them. He thought if he wrote to them there’d be some sort of retribution. So he - so there was even no contact. But he then met a Chinese ambassador at a cocktail party and the ambassador hinted to him that perhaps things were changing.

LI CUNXIN: My parents were granted the permission to leave China to visit me in America. What a dream that came true for us. And it was during that time you know I danced with Mary. She was invited by my director to dance with me as my partner at the Houston Ballet.

MARY LI, WIFE: We had this slight kiss and we both knew there was something there. But nothing was ever said. When you get a partner to dance with that works well with you, it’s very unusual to find that. That actually was the beginning of a relationship which we tried not to have really because we loved being dance partners, you know, we didn’t want to mix it up. But anyway, that’s history now. Yeah.

LI CUNXIN: I always have a spot for Queensland in my heart, because I married a Queenslander.

SOPHIE LI, DAUGHTER: When the day finally arrived that he was going to go to Queensland and actually be an artistic director well, OK yep this is great. And for them to move up to Brisbane to chase their dreams is fantastic and while at the same time it’s a little bit sad because my brother and I will still stay back behind in Melbourne.

LI CUNXIN: Mary and I we always wanted children, mentally we were prepared to have a child and for Mary to come back to dancing career. That was the plan. We didn’t realize until when Sophie was 18 months old, Sophie was totally deaf.

MARY LI, WIFE: But I researched everything because I wanted her to speak.

LI CUNXIN: I mean that’s the thing that was very big sad moment when we discovered her deafness was she was not going to listen to, hear the music. How beautiful music brings into our lives. And she would not be able to appreciate music through dance. Because dance without music might as well not exist.

MARY LI, WIFE: So there was a sort of frustration really, because as a baby you know she could communicate by touching your leg. But as time went on then she became quite difficult to handle.

LI CUNXIN: It was around that time that we moved back to Australia. Mary then decided to stop dancing, to sacrifice her career for our daughter Sophie. It was a heartbreaking experience for me to lose Mary as a partner, for her to give up something she loved so much from a very little child. She left dance at the height of her career.

MARY LI, WIFE: I heard about the cochlear implant, and I just thought what have we got to lose?

LI CUNXIN: She’s really loving her implants, loving the sound, loving to be able to communicate with people.

MARY LI, WIFE: It was a long journey. But now I think the conversations I have with my daughter, I mean everything was worth it.

SOPHIE LI, DAUGHTER: She’s always told me that the best gift was the daughter that I am becoming not really the success she had with her ballet career. My dad has told us countless tales of his childhood. He felt he was the lucky one who was able to go further and have more opportunities that many others couldn’t have.

LI CUNXIN: I was determined to help my family, my family in Australia – my three children - but as well as my rather large family back in China, my parents and my six brothers. That was always my childhood dream, to be able to help them one day. And I think through stockbroking, I have been able to achieve that.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: Li was dancing for years back out here in Australia with the ballet companies, but I think around the age of 38 he realised he couldn’t keep dancing forever. So looking for something else to do he decided to become a stockbroker. Now that does seem a bit of a surprise, but when I was at Houston researching the film, a couple of the ballet company said to me ‘oh, we remember when Li first arrived.' And they said he didn’t actually speak English but the first thing he did was he took out a subscription to the Wall Street Journal (laughs).

SOPHIE LI, DAUGHTER: When dad started stockbroking he really did miss dancing a lot because that was his passion. So I would often see him and mum actually grabbing on a stairwell rail and actually do a barre.

MARY LI, WIFE: And I think he got a bit sad really. And we were away on a weekend with a group of friends and one of them said ‘why don’t you put a few points down of your story and I’ll take it to my editor’. And the editor just wrote back to him quietly and said, ‘can you tell me a little bit more?’ And then it just started to pour out of him.

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: Li's book, 'Mao’s Last Dancer', became an international best seller.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: It’s a wonderful story and I thought ‘gosh, this’d make a terrific film.’ It’s a very hard to believe story, a number of the critics actually commented that it had to have been a fantasy. But it wasn’t. Li visited the set a few times and I was quite apprehensive. And he took one look at it and he turned to me and he said ‘it’s exactly right down to the last detail’.

(Brisbane - August, 2012)
LI CUNXIN: It’s always my ambition to be able to give something back to the art form that I loved so much. So when this opportunity come up to direct the Queensland Ballet, and I have done stockbroking for over 10 years, I thought there’s no better timing then is now.

MARY LI, WIFE: He’s carried his family all these years and looked after them and they’re doing well. And so he can think about what he actually wants to do. And so he’s been given this opportunity and he wants to do it. Going back into the dance world is just like putting your skin back on again.

LI CUNXIN: It’s fabulous, fabulous to be able to move physically. I feel good about it. But I really sometimes I feel frustrated because there’s certain things I wish I could actually still show them but it’s going to break my back or break my knee or break my leg in the process and I thought ‘oh, I better behave.’

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: What the whole purpose of launching the season is to try to sell season tickets, try to get as many individuals to sign on for the entire year, because that’s certainly your fan base.

NATHANAEL COOPER, ‘THE COURIER MAIL’ ARTS EDITOR: While Li’s appointment was received with enormous support and a lot of excitement there was also a lot of curiosity and a lot of questions asked about what kind of artistic director he would be, because he’s not a choreographer. And bringing in choreographers in to do that it's going to come with an extra cost and where is that money going to come from?

LI CUNXIN: We work very hard in the fundraising area with my business connections. And also with my new vision I think quite a lot of people are excited about supporting us. We are going to bring some wonderful choreographers with their new works and they are willing to work with us within our budget.

(Brisbane - four days ago – Launch and preview for season ticket holders)

ANNA MARSDEN, QUEENSLAND BALLET COMPANY CEO: I just want it to go so well. He’s put everything into it. And it’s just - it's his heart and soul on stage we’re going to see. I think in the end next year’s season will restore a lot of faith. And people who have been a little bit concerned I really believe they’ll be proud of their company.

LI CUNXIN: Oh, I can finally take a deep breath now. I’ve been holding this breath for days. And ever since my appointment really, I’ve been dreaming of this day go well. I have to say it went well. And I think the response from the audience is just beyond my imagination.

FEMALE QUEENSLAND BALLET SUPPORTER: You could feel the audience just connecting so strongly. He has so much vision so much passion I think he just made us all believe in that.

MALE QUEENSLAND BALLET SUPPORTER: Brisbane’s treasure in ballet. And I believe that he is actually going to take the ballet to a new high.

NATHANAEL COOPER, ‘THE COURIER MAIL’ ARTS EDITOR: The audiences are really excited about what Li is going to bring to next year. Now we just have to see it.

LI CUNXIN: Looking back on my life, that aspiring little frog dreamed for a chance to get out of that deep well to be able to experience and enjoy the real world. And I have to say that I have made my life successful and now I can use that success to inspire and motivate others. A lot of dreams have come true but this is a new dream, a new challenge.

END CAPTIONS:
With Li Cunxin’s help, his six brothers in China have been able to pursue ‘good careers’ in various fields.

His mother still lives in Shandong province in North Eastern China and Li Cunxin visits her frequently.

Next year Mary Li will join her husband at Queensland Ballet, in a teaching role.