LIU TIANHUA, a 44-year-old man who is visually impaired, has become the COO of Dialogue in the Dark’s exhibition hall in Shenzhen, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Liu was diagnosed with glaucoma when he was 3 years old and he completely lost his sight at the age of 23, when he graduated from Changchun University after studying acupuncture and massage therapy. “I put a flashlight in front of my eyes one day. I couldn’t see anything but could feel the heat. It was then that I realized that I was totally blind,” he said.

Liu got an offer from a university in Philadelphia, the United States, and was offered a 300,000-yuan (US$43,500) scholarship by HSBC before he graduated. However, his visa application was rejected by the U.S. Embassy because the visa officer believed that Liu would try anything to stay in America after finishing school due to the country’s good welfare for the visually disabled.

“Everyone thinks that blind people can only be massage therapists. I wanted to change my destiny, but then I was thrown back onto the designated path by destiny,” Liu said. He came to Shenzhen in 1997 and had worked at a massage center in Luohu District for 12 years.

Liu bought an apartment in Shenzhen and got married in 2000, but he still didn’t feel contented inside. “Even though I’m blind, I have always chosen the difficult path when at a crossroad,” he said.

In 2009, he joined Dialogue in the Dark as a blind guide for the program’s workshops in China. The program, which originated in Germany in 1988, provides visitors with a series of experiences in absolute darkness as they are guided by blind guides.

Liu has participated in over 400 workshops over the past eight years, and recently became the COO of the program’s exhibition hall in Shenzhen. He has four full-time and five part-time subordinates, and he often travels to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong to give lectures or training classes.

According to Liu, he has been given more than he could expect, but sometimes he still feels like he isn’t treated with respect and fairness by others. For instance, a taxi driver once rejected him and a waiter at restaurant spoke rudely to him because they thought he was penniless. He also failed to get permanent residency in Shenzhen because of his disability.

“I’ve tried my best to live my life as a normal person. Why do I still have to deal with unfair treatment?” he said. “I’ve received more help than harm from other people in my life, but sometimes I still feel uncomfortable with how people see me as a visually impaired person.”

(Zhang Yang)