Li Cunxin’s The Lucky Son follows his life beyond Mao’s Last Dancer

Li Cunxin’s sequel memoir, The Lucky Son, was published in Australia on 6 October 2026. In an interview published on 9 October, the former Queensland Ballet artistic director explained why the follow-up to Mao’s Last Dancer took 14 years and how his account came to encompass family, business and the company he led. For readers who know his first memoir, the new book carries his story beyond his rise as a dancer.

Penguin Books Australia lists The Lucky Son as a 480-page trade paperback with a recommended retail price of A$36.99. It also lists ebook and audiobook editions dated 6 October. The publisher calls it a sequel to Mao’s Last Dancer, which was published in 2003. Those listings establish the release and available formats, though they say nothing about sales or how readers have received the book.

Why Li Cunxin’s sequel took 14 years

Cunxin told The Guardian that he had signed a contract for a follow-up centred on his brothers and friends in China and the changes he had seen there. An offer to become Queensland Ballet’s artistic director redirected his time. ‘I don’t think they were expecting [the sequel] to take 14 years!’ he said of his publisher. The book that emerged retains his family’s story while following the later stages of his own life.

According to The Guardian, The Lucky Son begins where the earlier memoir ended: Cunxin and his wife Mary, also a dancer, are travelling to new lives at Houston Ballet under director Ben Stevenson. That starting point gives the sequel a different scope from the account of his childhood in China and ascent through ballet for which many readers know him. Penguin’s description likewise places his life in the West and his family alongside his dance career.

Family decisions in The Lucky Son

The Guardian also reported that Sophie later told her parents they had not met her world because they had not learned sign language. Cunxin said he and Mary had begun learning Auslan. It is a more complicated account of family life than a simple story of sacrifice followed by success, and places Sophie’s own perspective alongside her parents’ earlier decisions.

From stockbroking to Queensland Ballet

Cunxin’s working life after performing supplies another strand of the memoir. The Guardian reports that, after an unsuccessful bid to lead the Australian Ballet, he moved from principal dancing into stockbroking. He subsequently applied to lead Queensland Ballet. He told the newspaper that business skills helped him approach donors for the company; the interview says he and Mary contributed some of their own money as well.

Penguin’s biography dates his Queensland Ballet leadership from 2012 to the end of 2023. A 2023 ABC interview offers a contemporary account of what he hoped to build there. Cunxin said the annual budget had risen from just under A$5 million when he arrived to more than A$26 million, while employee numbers had grown from around 50 to more than 200. Those are his figures given to ABC at the time, rather than an independently audited comparison.

In that ABC report, former company principal dancer and then foundation director Rachael Walsh described Cunxin’s focus as building something that would last and said his vision attracted support. Cunxin told ABC he initially wanted to bring international dancers into the company before developing local talent, with the Queensland Ballet Academy playing a crucial role. The report also said the Thomas Dixon Centre was unveiled in 2022 after nearly a decade of development, with philanthropic donations contributing millions of dollars.

How the memoir reaches 2025

The later chapters extend beyond Cunxin’s time leading the company. The Guardian reported that he and Mary had faced serious health issues: Mary is a cancer survivor and Cunxin has a major heart condition. He told the newspaper that their health had forced them to slow down and that writing the book took two years of intensive work. ABC had reported their health concerns when they announced plans to leave Queensland Ballet in 2023.

Cunxin told The Guardian that his mother had taught him to keep moving forward rather than dwell on the past. The newspaper says The Lucky Son concludes with his receipt of a lifetime achievement award from the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland in 2025, an award Penguin also records in his biography. That endpoint carries the sequel through his leadership years while leaving the book’s account of family and career in Cunxin’s own voice.