Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    A LOST autistic teenager was found in neighboring Huizhou City on Monday with the help of residents, the media and the police three days after he went missing, making more people aware of the autistic community.

    A 29-year-old young woman, however, already started her deep involvement with the community last year.

    Based in Shenzhen, Kuang Ye is now making her first independent documentary about autistic children that could be screened by the end of the year.

    Deeply moved by parents’ whole-hearted devotion to their autistic children, Kuang decided to produce the documentary under the invitation of the mother of an autistic child, Liao Yanhui, who wished to take her son to visit other autistic children and their parents around the nation.

    Although Liao quit the project not long after it was initiated due to personal reasons, Kuang stuck to it even though she has not found any financial investors to back the project. Kuang is determined to produce the film as an independent documentary filmmaker.

    “I just have to do it,” said Kuang, with a calm expression on her face that makes her decision unquestionable.

    Japan as second homeland

    Kuang was raised in Wuhan, Hubei Province, until the age of 12 when she moved to Japan with her mother. According to the Chinese calendar, 12 years is a samsara, where the 12 zodiac animals finish a complete transmigration. For Kuang, 12 years in Japan made the country a second home for her.

    “I express myself more explicitly in Japanese than in Chinese because I was educated in Japanese throughout my adolescence, but I love to read books in Chinese, which has helped me better comprehend my mother tongue,” said Kuang.

    Japanese culture had a huge impact on her. “My friends in Japan would always forget that I originally came from China,” said Kuang.

    Kuang loves smiling, and still looks like a college girl. Her face seems to have the magic to melt any hardship.

    In Kuang’s eyes, Japan is a sophisticated country with many complicated phenomena that she can hardly explain but feels deeply.

    “Japan is a country that follows strict rules and procedures, but it has the most dynamic and creative people in the world. The consistent education in Japan gradually helped me shape my dream. We were encouraged to write down our dreams in younger grades and elaborate on how to fulfill our goals with feasible study plans and practical training throughout our schooling,” explained Kuang.

    Kuang sees herself as a special person in the world and has firm faith that she will achieve something extraordinary. She is fully aware of the fact that it is essential to have faith and confidence in oneself to make a difference.

    “To be honest, I am not as confident as I seem, but I know I must believe in myself in order to pursue something that I want,” said Kuang.

    After majoring in French studies in Japan, Kuang found a job as an assisting producer of an economic program with Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS). She worked hard but was not fully satisfied with her career trajectory if she stayed there. “I could see the ceiling above my head when I was doing the job, so I decided to leave.”

    Returning to China

    Kuang chose South China as her starting point when she returned to China. She started working in an interviewing program at Guangdong Television Station as an intern in 2011. After interning for a short time in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, Kuang moved to Shenzhen.

    Thanks to her previous experience in the television industry, Kuang found an opportunity working at Shenzhen Television Station in charge of costume management for “Generation Show,” a well-known reality TV show in Shenzhen.

    It was during her time with SZTV that she met her next employer, Yuezhong Media, and became involved in producing documentaries after leaving the TV station at the end of 2011.

    Kuang was engaged in the production of six episodes of documentaries over two years, taking on various responsibilities such as contacting liaisons, conducting interviews and editing. The documentaries covered mainly local history and people.

    The first documentary that Kuang worked on was “Shenzhen’s 30 Years,” a documentary of 12 episodes that told the stories of 12 local organizations, including ones that worked with veterans, an animal protection association and the Shenzhen Autism Society (SAS). The documentary was a huge success and was broadcast on the documentary channel of China’s Central Television.

    Kuang met Liao when working with SAS. Liao was one of the founders of SAS, an NGO that operates mainly through the support of parents of autistic children and some kind-hearted volunteers. Kuang was shocked to find out that most Chinese autism institutions are not faring well because they lack support from the government and society.

    “When I first met with Liao’s autistic son, I could hardly communicate with him. It was as if he was from another planet,” said Kuang.

    But as the documentary proceeded, Kuang gradually gained more knowledge about autistic kids and learned that they live in their own world instead of communicating with other people. “Autistic kids keep everything to themselves and have very limited ways of expressing their feelings,” said Kuang.

    Another fact that surprised Kuang was that among the founders of autism institutions, 55.88 percent were parents, which means less than half of the founders were experts with professional knowledge of autism or public officers from related departments. Kuang then decided to lend her support to autistic children.

    Independent

    documentary filmmaker

    Liao’s son does not go to school because most public schools are reluctant to take in autistic kids, nor does he attend a special school because his mother wants her son to live a normal life like other kids, so she takes her son to visit other autistic kids and their parents. After learning about Liao’s plan, Kuang offered to help her by recording the trip and making it into a documentary.

    When the documentary about local organizations filmed by Yuezhong was completed, Kuang asked her supervisor if they could get involved in making the documentary about autistic kids as a company project, but the company was short of funding at that time and could not support Kuang’s plan.

    Determined as ever, Kuang submitted her resignation so she could work on the documentary on her own and realize her dream as an independent filmmaker with only her own savings of 80,000 yuan (US$12,800) and a colleague to help her with the filming.

    Kuang started her long journey of visiting hundreds of autistic children and their parents who told their stories on film. Kuang did not give up when facing many hardships and challenges, even when Liao decided to stop traveling with her autistic son.

    “The reality sometimes can be cruel, and it was heartbreaking to hear so many parents say that their only wish was that their child would pass away before them so that he or she would not be left alone without anyone to care for them,” said Kuang.

    Kuang experienced another shock when she visited a parent of an autistic child in Hong Kong, where she thought families would have much more support from society. The parent told her, however, that local citizens agree with the Hong Kong government’s financial support for autism NGOs, but do not offer much emotional support for the autism community.

    When asked what the most urgent challenge was for her at the moment, Kuang said that she needed more hands and funding. “Each family has their own story to tell, and each autistic kid is unique,” said Kuang.

    In order to have enough funding, Kuang helps to produce other documentaries when she can, but she said she must speed up the shooting schedule of her 90-minute film if it is to be released by the end of the year.

    “I think one of my best qualities is that I can get acclimated to any environment,” said Kuang with a big smile on her face. “So I will keep pushing myself to make my first independent documentary, even under current circumstances.”