Visually impaired man in China uses music to convey optimism

Although Huang Yanping, a visually impaired young Chinese man, can only feel light in his eyes, he is full of optimism thanks to music, which he began to learn since childhood.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

If Huang had not studied music in Beijing, he would have followed an easier path for the blind and become a masseur. However, he has chosen a different path in life, using music to convey optimism and reach out to "those of us who are physically handicapped and want to be free."

"I got basically all the eye diseases I can get: vitreous opacity, optic nerve dysplasia, retinitis pigmentosa," Huang described his childhood eye conditions.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

At the age of nine, Huang entered a school for the blind. Besides compulsory courses such as massage, acupuncture and moxibustion, he also learned piano from his teacher. Puzzled, his parents thought, "there are so many keys on the piano, can you press them?" Undaunted, Huang managed to learn how to play Liszt and Chopin before leaving the school for the blind.

When Huang decided to study music in college, his parents were very supportive. The reality of the problem facing Huang was by the time he was 18 years old he had just graduated from junior high school, when almost all of his peers had graduated from high school. To prepare for the college entrance examinations, Huang decided to study the high school curriculum at home for one year.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

"It was bitter," recalling the days when he studied for the exam, Huang said he had to make up three years worth of classes in one year. Every day he got up at 5 a.m. and went to bed at 1 or 2 a.m.

He said, "Fortunately, my professional scores were good, although I was slightly worse in my academic courses,” joking that he was lucky.

After graduating from university, Huang joined a disabled people's art troupe in southeast China's Fujian province and repeatedly polished his excellent interpersonal skills.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

"None of my friends see me as a blind person now," exactly what Huang wants, he added, "I believe it is also what all visually impaired people want."

Huang once joked about his first half of life on his social media: success or not, I have stumbled into establishing a career. Today, Huang is a father to his three-year-old son. Although his son is also visually impaired, Huang has not relaxed his expectations for his son's future. "I want him to be useful to the country and society when he grows up," he shared. 

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

(Photo/Chinanews.com)