Sexual Exploitation
At the center of this story is a true-life tale. The revolutionary communist father of China, Chairman Mao, really did have a harem of young women who were officially employed as ballroom dance partners. In fact, of course, the dance moves twirled from the ballroom to the bedroom. Due to systematic ideological indoctrination, these women viewed being chosen for this position as the highest honor possible for those of their gender and their place within the social structure. So deeply ingrained is this indoctrination that the dancers begin to compete among themselves to become the Chairman’s “favorite” not unlike what males used to do in the courts of European monarchs. The book examines how an activity that any objective outsider would recognize as sexual exploitation can be twisted into seeming to be something completely different for those taking part in that activity.
The Seduction of Proximity to Power
The book also comes to question whether those who are inside the activity do not understand they are being exploited. The in-fighting among the various dancers is structured so that it becomes apparent that some of them are not only aware they are being exploited but are engaging in the politics of such exploitation. Recognizing that possibilities for empowerment are sparse, these girls recognize that merely having proximity to the all-power Chairman endows them with opportunities for self-improvement that would not exist otherwise. Mao ultimately becomes a metaphor for all-powerful men who can single-handedly transform the life of a girl without dreams into a woman living out her dreams.
Propaganda vs. Reality
An underlying theme of the story is the way that propaganda is utilized as public relations to craft images of famous people who have little connection to their reality. The dancers come to view the exploitative process of landing a spot in Mao’s private company as an honor in large part to seeing Mao through the eyes of the carefully constructed legend. They have spent their entire lives being subjected only to the propagandized version of Mao rather than the reality. Thus, they see movement from the ballroom to the bedroom as a great honor rather than as becoming victim to a perverted old man. The dancers become symbols of all the people of China who were equally manipulated into viewing Mao as almost godlike rather than as a very flawed human being.
