WHEN The Sydney Morning Herald -Dymocks Literary Event Program started on December 2, 1988, 120 people turned up at the Hilton hotel to have lunch and hear the author Morris West talk. Yesterday, at the event's 20th anniversary lunch, 1000 people listened to the guest speaker Li Cunxin, former ballet dancer and author of the autobiographical Mao's Last Dancer , at Star City's Grand Harbour Ballroom.

Between then and now more than 480 events have featured some of the world's best and most popular authors - many of whom were featured yesterday in short audio and video segments shown during lunch. There was Terry Waite, recounting the story of the little girl who breathlessly asked her mother if he had really been an "ostrich for five years"; there was rascally Roald Dahl; Michael Crawford laughing with the Herald literary editor, Susan Wyndham, about his Frank Spencer character; and firm favourite Archbishop Desmond Tutu on democratic elections in South Africa.

Cunxin first appeared at a literary lunch in 2003, when his book was published. About 150 people turned out to see him and he was, he explained, "petrified". Since then he has become a motivational speaker.

Cunxin charmed the audience with tales of being thankful that they had not picked Jackie Chan to play him in the Bruce Beresford film of his book, and his journey from near starvation in Mao Zedong's China to defection to the West and success as a ballet dancer first in Houston and then with the Australian ballet.

Among the guests were several former Herald literary editors, including Ian Hicks, who helped start the program. Also present were Lex McCorquodale, 85, and his wife Judy, 80, from Killara, who were at that first event. They, along with several others who attended the first event, received a $100 Dymocks book voucher for their support.