Helen Deng

deng.hneng@gmail.com

CHEN JUNLIANG has beautiful eyes. You may not be able to tell by looking at them that the 23-year-old is blind.

Chen lost his eyesight 10 years ago. Yet despite his blindness, the tall, handsome man lives his life to the full. He’s the advocate of Shenzhen Tongren Band, and a psychiatrist with Luohu District Disabled People’s Association. “My job is to take the disabled people out of their home and help them enter society,” said Chen.

Chen Junliang won the “Sunshine Master” title awarded by the Daily Sunshine last weekend, one of the 14 grassroots Shenzheners to have won the honor. The Daily Sunshine said he “has given power to many disabled people and their families, using himself as a great example.”

Going blind

Chen was born healthy. Fate dealt him a cruel blow in 2003, when the mollycoddled only-child was in Grade 1 of middle school. A sudden fever damaged his optic nerves. At first his parents thought he would simply become short-sighted, but soon the 13-year-old was completely blind.

“I was so scared. I was afraid that I would become a drain on my family,” he recalled.

But his parents did not give up on him. They sent him to a normal school. “My parents did not care if I learned anything from textbooks. They just wanted me to mix with peers,” he said.

His classmates were very kind. After school, they took him to play ball and went shopping with him. The child felt loved and encouraged, and gradually he regained confidence.

One year later, when Chen became more optimistic, he was sent to a vocational school for visually impaired people in Guangzhou. He soon stood out from classmates due to his aspiration, organization skills, and eloquence.

“I came to know that I could do many things. I would tell my depressed classmates: if you don’t respect yourself, nobody will respect you. If you don’t go out and enter society, you will never fulfil your potential.”

Starting his career

Upon graduation, Chen took the exam to become a psychological specialist and started his career in psychological consultancy.

“I’m blind, so I know what blind people fear and what they want,” he said. His catch phrase is: “You know what? A person with disabilities is not a disabled person.”

“We cannot control disabilities, but we can choose how to face them. As long as we don’t give up ourselves, we are not disabled,” he said.

Despite his blindness, Chen regards himself as a lucky person. “There are many children at the vocational school who were born blind. I had seen so many things before I became blind. I’m lucky,” he once told Chen Yan, mother of a girl with hearing difficulties.

“I was moved to tears,” recalled the mother, who finally accepted her daughter’s hearing problems after talking with Chen.

Chen makes at least five calls each working day to encourage people with disabilities. “One call could last up to one hour,” he said. “People with disabilities need to be listened to. Listening is a great way to help them out of their inner prison,” he said.

Few people who called Chen for the first time would know that they were calling a blind consultant. To win the caller’s trust, Chen would sometimes reveal that he was blind. “Because I cannot see, they trust me. They would share their thoughts with me, and tell me things that they would not tell other people,” said Chen.

In his spare time, Chen loves to play with his dog “Little Q,” donated by a pet shop owner in 2008. “Little Q” is a guide dog trained by himself. “He’s my eye,” Chen said with a laugh.

For the dog he wrote a song “You Are My Eye,” which won him the position of advocate at Shenzhen Tongren Band, a popular band composed of people with impaired eyesight.

Happy life

Chen said he did not have any big plans in life. “My current plans are saving up to get married and travel annually,” he said.

Chen loves traveling. Once a year he makes a long-distance trip with his girlfriend, who he met at the vocational school.

“My girlfriend has better eyesight than me. So she would tell me what she saw while traveling. We went to Beijing in 2008, Disneyland in 2009, and Sanya in Hainan Province in 2010. We have plans to travel in Thailand and Europe,” he said.

Chen earns about 2,000 yuan (US$315) a month. “I’m saving money to marry my girlfriend!” he said.

During the awarding ceremony of “Sunshine Master,” Chen thanked all the people who helped him. “The support of people around me has made me a positive person. I want my optimism to be contagious,” he said.

“I want to tell all the people with disabilities: if we drop our burden, and enter society, we will feel warmth,” he added.