feather in a whirlwind

"why are you, peasant boy, here in this magnificent city? throughout my childhood i had always dreamed of coming here. i had always believed i never would. yet now i was here, among fifteen million people. i felt like a feather swept up in a whirlwind. i was only eleven years old. nothing could have prepared me for this."

-- "Mao's Last Dancer"

only 140 pages into this book and i'm deeply engrossed in Li Cunxin's world.