Today Yue Li's dad and step-mom brought over Yue Li's photo albums from her growing up years. I don't have a scanner or I'd have put a few here, what a darling child she was. I also got to spend some time with her this morning talking about her growing up years and with her permission I'll share some of what she told me. Her childhood was, I believe, fairly typical of a Chong Chinq child until age nine when she tried out for the acrobatic team at the local arts school here. This is a school which teaches children acting, singing, instruments, and dance as well as acrobatics. Out of 500 applicants 25 were chosen for her class, Yue Li being one of them. She began boarding there at that point - her parents were responsible only for her food tab, the school (government) picked up the rest. She reports being quite happy for the eight years she lived there, although after the first year she almost elected to go home. The director told her, well then, go home. This is never going to be a walk in the park. After some crying with her mother, she decided to stay. The schedule was strenuous, the little girls doing acrobats from 7 to 12 am and then again from 2 to 5. In the evenings and some afternoons they studied academics. Her biggest compliant was the requirement that they stay in a handstand position each day for one hour.

By age 12 she and her acrobat troupe were traveling the world performing. Some years that entailed being out of the country six months each year. She has performed in most of the European countries, Japan, Indonesia, Canada, the States (Washington and Oregon) Australia, all of them multiple times. Although she moved out of the school into an apartment of her own at age 17, she continued with the troupe until age 23, when she elected to perform on her own or occasionally intandom with a troupe member.

She is very content with the life she led and speaks of the close bonds she formed with her classmates and with the foster families that they stayed with around the world.

Yue Li taught herself English by listening to music. She says that all of the endless hours spent on tour buses and airplanes was passed with earplugs in and building her vocabulary! That to me is an amazing feat, not just because it would take incredible persistence and intelligence but also because she could actually understand what they were saying.

Later this afternoon Sky and I went to a museum to see a traveling art show. Yue Li elected to stay home with baby as it was cold and drizzely outside. I enjoyed the art, but enjoyed more listening to Sky read some of the captions to me and explain what he knew. I found his knowledge is wide and deep about China, as he explained everything from why this certain calligraphy was beautiful to explaining historical stories depicted in the art. I am just beginning to get a grasp of the heritage baby Star Star has inherited.