AN armless man born in 1994 managed to buy a house in his hometown after selling his own paintings on the streets of Shenzhen for five years, sznew.com reported yesterday.

Zhu Xingming, from beggar to street painter, has manifested how Shenzhen would reward you depending on how you treat it.

In 2000, Zhu had his arms amputated at the age of 6 after he touched some power lines. He was frequently made fun of by his classmates for being armless, but the most embarrassing thing for him was that when he was 7 he still couldn’t pee by himself.

“This was the first time I realized the pain of not having hands. I cried and wet my pants until my grandma came back,” he said.

After graduating from high school in 2010, he stayed with his grandpa for a year. Two years later, he came to Shenzhen with his family and “accidentally” became a beggar because he couldn’t find a job and didn’t want to be a burden on his family.

By chance, he saw someone making money by selling calligraphy. It dawned on him that he could make a living by painting. But the unpredictable weather in Shenzhen, the teasing of children and the pressures of life all gave him a hard time.

Once, he reminded a passer-by that his paintings were for sale. However, the passer-by responded bluntly saying that his paintings were not good enough. This incident shocked him, and from then on, he made up his mind to paint well. He was so completely immersed in painting that he even began to have hallucination. A year later, his painting skills had progressed by leaps and bounds and were attracting people to stop and talk to him.

He finally could make a living by selling his paintings. A small one cost 100 yuan (US$14.9) and a large one 150 yuan. Sometimes he could earn as much as 15,000 yuan a month. Over the years, he was able to save some money and spent about 200,000 yuan on the house he bought with his family in his hometown.

Nevertheless, he is not planning to go back. “I don’t intend on going back to my hometown. It’s a small city. Who would buy my paintings there? Only people in Shenzhen would,” Zhu said. As for his future plans, he wants to make enough money to pay back his family. Then he hopes to study painting at Shenzhen University to further hone his painting skills. He also wants to travel across the country and give speeches to inspire people like him when he becomes famous.

(Zhang Yu)