Global Courant
He can’t stand on his own or hold a pen, but a man with cerebral palsy in Shandong, China, has written hundreds of poems and a play that he dreams of seeing on stage.
Mr Zhang Jiubin, 34, was born with the brain condition and diagnosed when he was three months old, his parents told China’s Qilu Evening News, adding that he grew up without full control of his hands and speech.
Since no school would enroll him, his father taught him to read pinyin and Chinese characters on a makeshift blackboard at home. An older brother gave him a phone with which Zhang learned to type on the keyboard.
“He started poking the keyboard with a chopstick, but later found it uncomfortable and directly used the tip of his nose to type,” said his father, Mr. Zhang Yonggui.
At first he had to hold up the books and turn the pages for his son. It wasn’t long before the boy began reading on his own, using his chin and nose to turn the pages of the books his father had placed on the table.
The senior Zhang said his son began showing a desire to write about a decade ago, and poetry became his chosen literary form. The father said his son started writing poems when he received 100 yuan ($18.70) from a local news portal in the spring of 2014.
“I don’t know literature, but I know that the mountains and waters written by others have given him hope,” Mr. Zhang said of his son.
Today, the younger Mr. Zhang has earned about 5,000 yuan for his published poems, a few hundred of the nearly 1,000 he has written.
He has also joined online advocacy groups and exchanged thoughts and ideas with fellow poets.
His mother, Ms Wang Gairong, told a newspaper that he is persistent and works hard to hone his craft, often writing late into the night while lying in bed.
A dictionary he has used since childhood is in tatters from frequent turning.
In July he completed a 17,000-word play titled Candle Heart, a project that took him six months to complete.
“I want to put my play on stage as soon as possible,” Mr. Zhang told a newspaper, adding that it is about a wealthy woman who left her comfortable life to teach in a hill village.
“Words have shown me the joys and colors of life. Words are the morning sun, the wind of spring,” he added lyrically.
For now, the eldest Mr. Zhang says he takes solace in the lines in one of his son’s poems: In this life, the most delayed words tell you, “I love you, my father.”
The eastern province of Shandong is home to other writers with cerebral palsy.
One of them, Ms. Sun Lukang, has published at least four volumes of poetry and prose written with her feet.
