The Life Of Li Cunxin Drama Essay

The Life Of Li Cunxin Drama Essay Li Cunxin, is one of the best male ballet dancers in the world. He has shown great courage, ambition and determination throughout his entire life. He excelled in the gruelling ballet training at the Beijing Dance Academy, made his way to be one of the premier dancers with the Houston Ballet for 16 years before moving on to another career as a stockbroker and today, he resides in Australia while travelling around the world as a motivational speaker. Li was born into a very poor family in 1961 in Qingdao in China which was then a communist country led by Mao. He lived in a very small town with twenty of his relatives. His family struggled to stay alive, living close to starvation daily, but because of the familys love for each other and their determination to live, they try very hard to survive each day. Lis childhood is filled with love and affection from his family. It was always in Lis mind that he wanted to be able to do something to help his family. He knew that ballet would be his familys best opportunity to escape the bitter poverty in his rural home in China. Sure enough, he was chosen to become a ballet dancer. Li then began his journey in becoming one of the best dancers in the world. His family is always there to support him on every decision he made, giving him full support, love and encouragement. At the age of eleven, Li began his training at the Beijing Dance Academy from 5:30 am to 9 pm for 6 days a week. No matter how much he suffered during the training, he never Tee 2 thought of giving up. He realised that dancing is his passion and it motivated him to give his 100% effort in dancing. Li would wake up at 5 in the morning when everyone is still sleeping and hop up and down the stairs to build the strength of his leg as well as his stamina. At night he would practice his turns by the candlelight. As much as he wanted to live a better life, he had never forgotten about his family that he left behind. Lis determination has steered him onto the path of success that helped him break free from his communist homeland. After 7 years of harsh training at the Beijing Dance Academy, Li had become a self disciplined and a student with great determination. He received a golden opportunity to study dance in America through a student exchange program under Maos regime. He was later offered a contract as a soloist with the Houston Ballet and danced for the company for 16 years. He was regarded as one of the best dancers in the world. In three international ballet competitions, he won silver and a bronze medal at three international ballet competitions and he performed with some of the best ballet companies in the world. Here are some quotes and principles that Li stands firm on which have led to his success in dance. Dance is the ultimate combination of discipline and freedom. Discipline is the foundation to become totally free and creative. If youre free without a foundation then you could go off the rails. His self determination, dedication and the willingness to work hard and always behave positively to achieve his goal is his approach to success and to dance. In the official site of Li Cunxin, here are the testimonials that document his influence on the development of dance. According to Australian Friendly Societies Association (AFSA), Without a doubt one of the most powerful and invigorating presentations I have seen. The AFSA are extremely impressed by Lis impact, style, personable nature and overall attitude. What makes me think that Li is impressive is in the sense of his style and Tee 3 movement in dance which are strong and defined which is beyond ethereal with his emotional conveyance. His dances are one of the dances that are hard to forget. I believe that his approach to dance is one of commitment and focus. From his attitude and behaviour, it can motivate us as dancers to keep in mind that we can do it as long as we stay determined. Lis film, Maos Last Dancer, is an amazing true story based on the extraordinary pathway he had to go through to become a famous dancer. Lis success is not just as a dancer, he succeeded in lighting for the true human ideal. The film Maos last dancer explores the struggle for two freedoms: personal choice and artistic expression. On the surface, this true story concerns the struggle between the eastern and western ideologies. While some people view his choices as heroic, others see him as a traitor to his homeland. In my point of view, Li left his family behind in Beijing to U.S and began to not only see the world for the first time, but also found his passion in dance. Going even deeper, viewers will see his struggle for creative freedom the ability to say, do, and dance what he feels as an artist. This is how he has made an influence in dance. I believe that it is true; he gives every dancer mental motivation and hope to achieve a goal by reminding us not to waste every single mome nt of our dancing journey. Other than that, Li likes to take on challenges. He requested to enter the America International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, the equivalent of the Olympics for ballet dancers and he achieved a silver medal. I wanted to get a sense of how my dancing stood up to international standards. (Li, 292). Li always had a positive attitude towards dance. He had to constantly confront and overcome his self-doubt and insecurities; even when he was locked up in the Chinese Consulate in Houston for 21 hours, which is one of the most famous and controversial defection in the U.S history. The FBI and also the then Vice Tee 4 president George W.Bush was called in resulting in a tension with the Chinese Consulate. The world waited for 21 hours to see what fate has for Li. Li walked out after 21 hours into the streets of Texas and never looked back ever since. These are what people admire about him the most. We have to find our own direction in dance; our own style by dancing from our heart and soul. Nowadays, the hard work and dedication towards dance that Li has are rarely seen. We can truly see that Lis story is a true fairytale about a boy who had a dream to become the best ballet dancer in the world. His view on dance training is one of determination and hard work because it provided a path for him to break free of communist China and take him around the world as a professional dancer. To prove the validity of the story above, here are the substantial evidences on his personal thoughts about his life in China. When Li was in America, he told himself that he was the fish and China is the pond. From this metaphor we can see how Li felt about China as a fish cannot exist anywhere else other than its pond so like the fish, Li thought he would not be able to live out of China. From what we can see from his life experience, the approach that Li took towards dance is full of determination, courage, discipline and the passion to be one of the best dancers in the world. His sheer discipline and the need for him to lift his family out of poverty drove him to achieve beyond his limit. Work Cited Elias, Debbie Lynn. Maos Last Dancer. 20 August 2010. Tonight at the Movies. . FAQs, Career. Li Cunxin Dancer, Stockbroker and Author of Maos Last Dancer. 2010. . Determination and Defection. TripAtlas.com. 2010. . Li, Cunxin. Maos Last Dancer. Offical Site of Li Cunxin. N.p., 2005. Web. 23 Aug 2010. . Li, Cunxin. Maos Last Dancer. Australia: Sheena Dewan, 2003.

Northern Cascades National Park :: essays research papers

The purpose of this paper is to give you some background information on Northern Cascades National Park and to talk about the management techniques the park uses to preserve it. Northern Cascades National Park became a national park on Oct 2, 1968, when Lyndon Johnson sighed the North Cascades Act. Twenty years later congress designated 93% of the park as a Stephen Mater Wilderness. When congress declares an area as â€Å"wilderness,† it provides extra protection against human impact. Northern Cascades National Park is mostly used for backpackers and mountain climbers, who have little impact on the park. There is one gravel road open to the public that is in the park, but very few people utilize it. Each year Northern Cascades National Park receives about 400,000 visitors for recreational purposes. Native Americans were amongst the first to use this area. Four Indian tribes inhabited the Cascades; the Upper Skagits, Sauk, Suiattle, and Swinomish who were attracted to this area for its plentiful resources. By the 1770’s there was Euro American presence in the Cascades. The Euro Americans used this area to get furs and pelts for trading. The beaver, wolf, and grizzly bear were the most sought after pelts in the cascades, do to their abundance. Later many would come to mine the cascades, but there wasn’t much of what they were looking for. Northern Cascades National Park is about 684,000 acres and encompasses Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. In today’s society there are very few wilderness areas that aren’t impacted by human activity like Northern Cascades National Park. Many areas within the park have had little human intervention. In many areas of the park the only human impact is coming form air and water pollution, which doesn’t sound good. But this is still a lot less impact than other parks receive. The Cascades stretch as far south as California and continues north to British Columbia. The cascade mountain range didn’t used to be part of North America, but millions of years ago it attached itself do to accumulation of sediment, colliding tectonic plates, and volcanic activity (www.north.cascades.national-park.com/info.htm). The Cascades is one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world and one of the fasting growing. Depending where you are in the park the climate can dramatically change. From the hundreds of small lakes and rivers that sculpt the lowlands to the mountain tops that reach up to 1000

Controlling Chaos

Eric Santana Controlling Chaos There is a common understanding that growth in any aspect of the economy is a grand concept. However, when growth begins to start spreading out in such a manner that it becomes uncontrollable, there is an inherent issue. Such is the case in David Carle’s essay â€Å"Sprawling Gridlock†. Carle mentions several pervading issues and problems with the rapid growth and spread of Southern California, and outlines measures taken against the expansion.Carle’s resolve and purpose of this essay is to describe and illustrate the issue of the uncontrolled spread of urbanization, and the relation of this rapid growth to the quality of life of its inhabitants. Carle outlines rapid, spread out growth for problems such as traffic congestion, land developers putting pressure on land owners, and the accountability of citizens, businesses, and developers in financing the repairs to this damaged infrastructure.According to Carle, the traffic congestion that was consuming Southern California through the 1990’s was becoming a nightmare that threatened the livelihood of all of its participants. â€Å"Road Rage† was born and was the result of creeping, gridlocked freeways that frustrated commuters spent hours in getting from point A to point B. The spread, development, construction, and growth of urbanized communities along these freeways compounded and multiplied the severity of these congested motorways. This was costing two billion dollars in wasted time and petrol.The correlation between these motorways and the urbanized spread began in the early 1900’s. Back then, the Pacific Electric trolley cars carried more than one hundred million passengers over around one thousand miles of track. The independence an automobile represented appealed to citizens and soon changed the way they commute from â€Å"mass-transit† to â€Å"rapid-transit†. This change begun with the construction of the Arroyo Seco P arkway in 1940 (the first motorway opened in California and connected Downtown Los Angeles with Pasadena).Through 1996, California became paved with over one hundred seventy thousand miles worth of roads. However, the rapid growth and urbanized spread of Southern California did not construct fast enough to keep up with the growing mass of commuters. Solutions such as freeway widening created construction that worsened gridlock initially, created improved congestion once completed, and created a new gridlock after a couple years of growth catching up to transit. This inefficiency and spread gridlock of the Southern California motorways had an unprecedented effect on the quality of life of its citizens.Not only were the half-million hours they spent every day in their commutes having a fiscal effect, but a psychological effect as well. Not only was this evident in the increased number (and methods) of road rage incidents, but also in the manner that the time spent in traffic denied th em their personal independence. The countless hours citizens spent sitting or crawling in traffic made them feel trapped as though they were entirely limited of all ability to control their journey; the very concept that attracted Southern Californians away from timetabled mass-transit, to the complete freedom of the automobile.This growth and spread of urbanized Southern California did not only effect the commutes of their citizens, but it also effected the development pressures of their land. One of the largest population growths of Los Angeles occurred between 1970 to 1990. The forty-five percent increase in population correlated into a three hundred percent increase in developed land area. This increase of population, innovations of the motor ways, the State Water Project, and air conditioning gave birth to fastest growing cities in California (the cities on the outskirts of the Greater Los Angeles area).The spike in the population of these cities created increased pressures on land owners by land developers. The uncontrolled growth and spread of urbanization lead to estates and lands being bought out and developed. The psychological pressures and aesthetic discrepancies these land developers were created had a profound effect on the quality of life of citizens. The example Carle uses to describe the detriment on the quality of life of citizens by developers is the Warne family. The Warne family had owned orange groves on their (undeveloped) land since the 1960’s.After the passing of Henry and Ellen Warne, land developers began placing severe pressures on the descendants of the family. Land developers were already constructing â€Å"planned residential communities† outside their ranch, and were doing everything they could to purchase the last bit of land from the Warne descendants. To compound the pressures they were already facing, estate taxes were to be due that would require the descendants to pay fifty-five percent of the estates total v alue. These state taxes and land development pressures led to several farmers and land-owners having to sell their land (that soon became more developed urbanized â€Å"sprawl†). Although the Warne’s eventually were not forced to have their precious orange groves destroyed and developed, nine acres of land they owned and designated as strawberry fields were completely eradicated by developers. The method in which this land was zoned by the city created a value surpassing millions of dollars, and allowed their estate tax debts to be paid.This example illustrates an extraordinary effect on the quality of life that uncontrolled spread of urbanization manifested. The pressures by land developers and estate taxes not only lowered the quality of life for the land owner, but also for the citizens stuck in gridlock and all urbanized Southern California. The urbanized sprawl and planned residential communities replaced the open space and farmland. In the extreme developed sprea d and gridlock, those large open spaces were like sanctuaries to the urbanized mind.The effect this had on the quality of life was that uncontrolled urbanization was everywhere, and was inescapable. Aesthetically pleasing views of natural land became no longer present in the communities of Southern California, and created a psychological void of â€Å"nature† in the urbanized mind of its citizens. Beyond the physical appeal and traffic congestion, the sprawl was having a negative effect upon air pollution and endangered species as well. Finally, coalitions began deciding that developers, businesses, and citizens must start being accountable in financing repairs to this damaged infrastructure.After California was declared the most urbanized state in the nation, the publication of Beyond Sprawl: New Patterns of Growth to Fit the New California was released in 1995. In this publication, there was a call to arms for â€Å"smarter growth† in developing areas and communities . It also called for the redevelopment of some already developed business and residential districts as well as encourages high-density inhabitance. Beyond Sprawl illustrated that the expenses of public services and infrastructure are hardly ever paid by development profits or taxes incurred to new businesses and residents.This meant that all development that spread out around Southern California had to start financing the marginal costs imposed in the area. The publication figured schools, sewage systems, transportation facilities, water systems and other municipal systems into the equation of calculating infrastructure costs. The total cost of infrastructure repair according to Beyond Sprawl was $24,500 for each new single-family residence; an unrealistic solution to solving the urbanized problems.Accordingly, accumulating additional tax payers to pay into the subsidy pool was the only logistic method of sustaining the subsidization of infrastructure repair and growth. The effect t his would have on the quality of life of individuals in a community would mean less encouragement to engage in government planning and decision making processes due to the distribution of costs. This publication eventually led up to the 1987 growth control initiative on the Orange County ballot.This initiative was forged by citizens to put limits and control on urbanized growth, but was defeated when special interests opposition spent 2. 5 million dollars to defeat the campaign. The effect this had on the quality of life was quite negative because no growth controls were able to get implemented, and nobody could be accountable for financing infrastructure repairs and growth. The effects of the uncontrolled growth and urbanized spread of Southern California are greatly impacted upon its inhabitants.They range from unbearable traffic congestion (wasted time, money, and freedom), to total loss of any natural scenery (open space and farmland destroyed for development). From the species of animals that have become endangered do to these developments, to the pressures of special interest developers upon honest, hard-working land owners. All of these effects have greatly deteriorated and relinquished the quality of life that the citizens of Southern California once moved here to attain. A literal sprawling gridlock has a substantial effect on all aspects of urbanized life.From birth to adolescence, adolescence to adulthood, and adulthood to an elderly age, the urbanized spread influences all aspects of life. During adolescence, an individual growing up in a sprawling gridlock is influenced by the distance and time they must travel to do necessary activities (such as education, recreation, medical attention etc. ). The individual is influenced by the travel they must complete to achieve their tasks. When in route, they do not see open spaced, natural land. They see miles upon miles of pavement and urbanization. This may have a detrimental ffect upon their psyche as th eir minds process the artificial scenery of sprawled gridlock. This urbanized spread influences raising a family by limiting the number of activities a family may do. Due to the incredible gridlock that congested freeways create, families have less opportunity to go new places and do new things. This creates a barrier between families and the outside world. Without the ability to have leisurely outings as a family, the quality of life for that family is dramatically less than that of a family living outside of the urbanized sprawl.Likewise in building a community, the sprawled gridlock limits the possibilities in having a thriving, happy community. Without the ability or land to build and maintain parks, a community is nothing more than a large spread of houses. There is no way for a community to assemble or have recreational activities in the wake of these negative effects. Land developers and sprawling gridlock completely consumed everything, and left nothing more for communities to share. This extremely hinders the building of a happy community.Overall the sprawling gridlock is a complete determent and contradiction to a high quality life of its inhabitants. One may not be able to engage in complete personal freedom and independence if one is caught living in â€Å"the sprawl†. From the congested freeways to the concrete jungle, one cannot escape from the effects of rapid urbanization. The relationship between unregulated urbanized growth and the quality of the life for its inhabitants is a sprawled gridlock indeed.

Currentmarketconditions - 798 Words

Current Market Conditions Competitive Analysis Principles of Microeconomics ECO 365 David Norcross April 13, 2015 Current Market Conditions Competitive Analysis In this paper, Team A is participating in a strategic planning group creating a new product at General Motors. The following is a competitive market analysis on the potential of our new 2016 Chevy Volt’s success. We will be focusing on our competitor Toyota and their Prius lineup. Additionally, we will summarize our target consumer and current market conditions. Then we will cover variables that weigh on supply, demand, and equilibrium prices. Next, we will consider the pros and cons our firm faces while identifying the effect on our competitiveness and long-term†¦show more content†¦Opportunities and Challenges * Any issues or opportunities your organization or industry faces that affect its competitiveness and long-term profitability with regards to your product: This may include, but is not limited, to the following elements. * Price elasticity of demand * Technological innovation * The relationship between the amount of labor amp; capital employed and the law of d iminishing marginal productivity * Cost structure Factors affecting variable costs Factors affecting variable costs, including productivity and others that change the supply of and demand for labor costs change with the number of products offered for sale. These are called variable costs. Variable costs include the wages of sales people or other employees, raw materials, electric power to run machines, and the cost of maintaining inventory. We believe that the lack of alternative energy vehicles available and when high fuel costs will drive the costs at times. Factors affecting fixed costs Factors affecting fixed costs include costs that do not change with an increase or decrease in the amount of goods or services produced. Fixed costs are also an expenses that has to be paid by a company. It is one of the