1. Qingdao, China
1.1. Childhood
1.1.1. 26th January 1961 - Li is born into a poor peasant family.
1.1.2. LI's arm is burnt badly from the wok and it after it is cured, it leaves a scar that he touches as a reminder of his niangs love for him.
1.1.3. LI steals a toy car from his friend Sien Yu and after a heart to heart talk with his mother and father, he learns to always have pride no matter what the circumstances.
1.1.4. Li's parents fight as a result of his dia getting drunk.
1.1.5. LI listens to the story about the frog in the well and asks his dia if they are in a well as well and he realises the hopelessness of their situation.
1.1.6. Li sends letters to the gods with kites in order to satisfy his imagination which keeps his "heart warm" and his "hopes alive"
1.1.7. Li hears the tale of the cricket and wishes that he could turn into a cricket just like the boy from the story and save his family from their horrible standard of living.
1.1.8. Nana dies and Li Cunxin is stricken with grief about his loss.
1.1.9. Februaruy, 1970 - Li starts school
1.1.10. Li hears the tale of the bird and the hunter and learns that it's important to keep ones promises.
1.1.11. Li gets tested to see if he will go to Beijing dance academy and he passes.
1.1.12. Li's niang tells him that going to Beijing to learn ballet is the only way for him to "escape his well" and help his family.
1.2. Adulthood
1.2.1. June 1988 - LI and Elizabeth visit the Beijing Dance Academy again and are greeted by his former classmates and teachers.
1.2.2. June 1988 - Li returns to Qingdao and visits his family and his Nana's grave. He then attends his brother's wedding.
1.2.3. He then pays many more visits to his hometown after this.
2. Beijing, China
2.1. Beijing Dance Academy
2.1.1. 1st Year
2.1.1.1. Li makes a very important friend who will help him a lot later in life. He is Zhang Xiaojia
2.1.1.2. Li falls behind in his studies and loses interest in ballet very quickly. He quickly becomes one of the worst in his class.
2.1.1.3. When Li returns home, he is very scared about his parents reaction to his marks but to his surprise they say nothing. They tell him to try his best and his father gives him a royal blue pen which becomes a symbol for his father's words.
2.1.2. 2nd Year
2.1.2.1. Li makes friends with Wang Lujun (the bandit) who becomes Li's blood brother as they exchange cups with both of their blood in it.
2.1.2.2. There is a new teacher in the academy (teacher Xiao) who becomes Li's best mentor and makes him love ballet and try his best at it.
2.1.2.3. Li makes friends with another boy two years older than him (Chong Xiongjun) who invites Li to his family and afterwards, his family unofficially "adopts" Li.
2.1.2.4. Li returns home with much better marks than the first year.
2.1.3. 3rd Year
2.1.3.1. The academy gets invited to hear Chairman Mao speak at Tiananmen Square
2.1.3.2. Li joins the communist youth party at the academy.
2.1.3.3. Teacher Zhang Shu joins the academy at starts to notice Li.
2.1.3.4. Teacher Xiao tells Li a story about a bow shooter. Li learns that nothing is impossible and in order to accomplish noteworthy things, he must try very hard first.
2.1.4. 4th Year
2.1.4.1. Li gets more and more involved in the ballet events.
2.1.4.2. Li hears the fable about a young farmer who wasted his planting season because he waited for a blind rabbit to kill itself on a tree on his land. However, no rabbit came. Li learns from this that nothing in life comes easy.
2.1.4.3. Li gets elected as one of the three communist youth party committee members and vice captain of his class.
2.1.5. 5th Year
2.1.5.1. Chairman Mao dies
2.1.6. 6th Year
2.1.6.1. There is a three week holiday but Li decides to stay at the academy and practice his ballet.
2.1.6.2. Li hears the symbolism of the mango from Teacher Xiao and this becomes very important in his successes.
2.1.7. 7th Year
2.1.7.1. New director (Director Song) as a result of Deng Xiaoping's reforms.
2.1.7.2. The students can now practice whatever art forms they want to.
2.1.8. 8th Year
2.1.8.1. There is a new teacher for a short period of time (Ben Stevenson) and Li is selected to go to his classes.
2.1.8.2. Li and Zhang both go to America were all their communist beliefs (implanted in their head by Chairman Mao) are challenged with their new experiences of America.
2.1.8.3. November 1979 - Li leaves China for a second time and it will be many years before he can return.
3. West/America
3.1. Li feels free as he leaves China for the second time as he can think however he wants to.
3.2. Li and Elizabeth both fall in love with each other.
3.3. Li then performs many different ballets and becomes famous throughout the industry.
3.4. 1981 - Li and Elizabeth marry and he tells Ben which makes Ben very angry
3.4.1. The group is held in the Chinese consulate in America for 21 hours with the FBI and the police getting involved.
3.4.2. Li is allowed to stay but he no longer has a Chinese citizenship and therefore can not return to China.