Mao's last dancer is now about to share his name with a new species of peacock spider.
Li Cunxin, the Queensland Ballet's artistic director and 2009 Australian father of the year, will be on hand at the Queensland Museum on Monday when the colourful spider's name is officially announced.
Queensland-based scientists Barbara Baehr and Robert Whyte have christened the peacock spider "Maratus licunxin", one of six new species recently discovered in Australia, in honour of the Chinese-born dancer.
Li's tale is well known worldwide thanks to his 2003 autobiography Mao's Last Dancer.
The book tells of his upbringing in poverty in communist China before a harsh seven-year training regime at the Beijing Dance Academy.
He graduated as one of China's best dancers and became one of the first two cultural exchange students under Mao's regime allowed to go to the US to study.
However, after defecting to the US Li was locked up in the Chinese consulate in Houston, causing a political stand-off before being released as a free man.
He moved to Melbourne in the 1990s.
Peacock spiders are named as such because of their bright colours and dance-like courtship rituals.
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