“As a child, Li Cunxin endured poverty so extreme that children from his commune raided rats’ nests for food. In a fluke, he was chosen to go to China’s leading ballet school, overseen by Mao’s notorious wife, Jiang Qing, even though he had never danced a step. Then there was his dramatic defection to the US in 1981, and an acquaintance with former US first lady Barbara Bush that helped reunite him with his parents.”