Li Cunxin

In the 2019 Birthday Honours, Cunxin was appointed officer (AO) of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to the performing arts, particularly to ballet, as a dancer and artistic director".

In July 2016, Barbara Baehr and Robert Whyte from the Queensland Museum named a newly discovered spider species Maratus licunxini after Li Cunxin. Dr Baehr said a Queensland Ballet performance of Li Cunxin's A Midsummer Night's Dream reminded her of the stunning mating display of the peacock spider. Li said he was honoured to have the spider named after him saying "having seen this incredible spider, the intricate mating dance, the fancy peacock markings, I can understand why Barbara would make a link with our ballet dancers."

In July 2012, Li was named as Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet. Li established himself as a mainstay of Brisbane's cultural scene. He was named Australian Father of the Year in 2009.

Mao's Last Dancer was adapted into a 2009 feature film of the same name by director Bruce Beresford and writer Jan Sardi, starring Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood and Kyle MacLachlan. At the São Paulo International Film Festival 2009 the film won Best Foreign Feature Film Audience Award (tied with Broken Embraces).

In 2003 Li published his autobiography, Mao's Last Dancer. It has received numerous accolades, including the Australian Book of the Year award. In 2008, the children's version of this book, Mao's Last Dancer: The Peasant Prince (illustrated by Anne Spudvilas), won the Australian Publishers Association's Book of the Year for Younger Children and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Children's Book Award.

After arriving in Australia in 1995, when sidelined by a sprained ankle, Li occupied himself by gaining work experience with ANZ Securities and embarking on a three-year diploma course with the Australian Securities Institute. He had previously become interested in the stock market while in Houston. The Australian Ballet and ANZ Securities accommodated his desire to work at two professions simultaneously, dancing and stockbroking. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he worked at the stockbroking firm from 7:30am till noon when he arrived at the Australian Ballet for rehearsals and to prepare for performances. He followed this routine for two years. He believed these were his best years as a dancer. "I got to a level I thought I would never reach, a fusion of technique and artistry. When I was younger I might have been better technically, but I was lacking artistic maturity." Li retired from ballet in 1999 at the age of 38 and joined Bell Potter Securities to establish its Asian desk.

Li subsequently danced with the Houston Ballet for sixteen years, during which he won two silver and a bronze medal at International Ballet Competitions. While dancing in London, he met ballerina Mary McKendry from Rockhampton, Australia. They married in 1987. In 1995 they moved to Melbourne, Australia, with their two children. Li became a principal dancer with The Australian Ballet. McKendry and Li have three children: Sophie (1989) Thomas (1992) and Bridie (1997).

After his study at the summer school, Li defected to the West. He was held in the Chinese Consulate in Houston, his defection creating headlines in America. He had begun a relationship with an aspiring American dancer, Elizabeth Mackey, and in 1981, they married so that Li could avoid deportation. After 21 hours of negotiations, and intervention by George Bush Sr. (U.S. Vice President at the time), Li was allowed to stay in the US as a free man, but his Chinese citizenship was revoked.

Li Cunxin AO (born 26 January 1961) is a Chinese-Australian former ballet dancer turned stockbroker. He is currently the artistic director of the Queensland Ballet in Brisbane, Australia.