A very fast electronic female voice, from every corner of the massage shop from time to time, become the background voice of the interview.
In fact, the female voice is the background to countless blind people living 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s an iPhone feature called VoiceOver, or TalkBack in Android. It can read text on the screen for easy access.
The city’s blind masseurs have ridden the mobile Internet with touch-screen phones, but they haven’t left the so-called mainstream profession of the blind. At some point before or after birth, many doors and Windows of their destiny quietly close.
Most people are confined to a dark island, reading school for the blind, going to technical secondary school, becoming a blind masseur, a tuner, or learning a mysterious art and sitting on the street.
This winter, we met several blind entrepreneurs in Beijing. Their eyes were blank, but they were full of vitality. They were the breakout from the island.
1
Every summer, Shang Takes staff from two massage parlors on an outing.
The blind masseuse and the semi-blind masseuse were in pairs, holding and supporting each other. More than 40 family members, old and young, moved with great force from the bus and walked to the beach of Dongdaihe River, the beach of Beidaihe River, the mountain road of wild hills and the rafting boat. They walked towards the open direction, breathing, taking pictures and imagining the scenery.
As a blind man, Mr. Shang understands the needs of his employees.
Shang Lihu was born in a village in Ningjin County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province. He was born semi-blind with his left eye never opened and his vision in his right eye is about 0.1.
When He was a child, he read in the village primary school, sitting in the first row can not see the blackboard, let the deskmate help read aloud, exams can also get more than ten. Fifth grade, the head teacher suddenly talk to him, advised him to go to the disabled school, learn a skill to eat.
One time, he accidentally damaged his right eye, causing retinal detachment. When he opened his mouth to tell his parents, his vision was already very poor and he had to drop out of school. He stuck to his textbook in the sun and read until one day he could not see his own hand.
At the age of 16, At the insistence of his family, Shang enrolled in a blind school to learn Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) massage and entered the “mainstream track”.
There are no more than three ways for the career development of blind people in mainland China: massage, music and metaphysics. However, both medical massage and health massage have clearer channels than music and metaphysics. Shang Lihu read for 3 years, learned the theory of Traditional Chinese medicine in the morning, practiced massage technique in the afternoon, the result is top-notch, and married with the only girl in the class.
After graduation, his girlfriend, who has low vision, and Shang Li Hu, who is completely blind, float north together.
Shang Li Tiger in his own massage shop shang Li Tiger in his own massage shop
At that time, there was no mobile Internet, no touch-screen mobile phones and only Line 1 and Line 2 subway in Beijing. The two of them went to massage parlors for interviews and often spent two or three hours on the bus.
In blind massage circles, professional female technicians are a scarce resource, brawn male technicians are more likely to be trusted by customers, and low vision is more popular with bosses than full blindness. As a result, Shanglihu girlfriend’s job quickly stable, and he is small, thin, and blind, do not meet everywhere.
“I feel like crying when I answer the phone… It wasn’t hard then, but it’s hard now.” Shang Lihu stopped for a few seconds, fanned his eyes and moved his Adam’s Apple.
In 2005, he had already set out on his own with his girlfriend, spend 3000 yuan to take over a small massage shop in Shunyi, but the store is remote, it is really difficult to earn money, two people had to go out to work again.
2
After changing jobs six times, Shang Li Hu finally in fengtai a massage shop to get recognized. After receiving the first month’s salary 2300 yuan, he hid himself in the toilet and counted for a long time before he made a phone call to his wife’s girlfriend: “Finally, I earn more than you!”
In 2009, the former owner transferred the store, and he paid 40,000 yuan to take it over. On March 1 that year, he became the owner of fengtai Guikang Blind massage shop. On August 9, her daughter was born with thick eyebrows and big eyes. In October, a mortgage bought a house nearby on the eve of a house-price boom.
A year to climb a small peak, some say he is lucky, but no one said he was bold.
The old customer that did store value card, consumption but do not have cash flow, the dish that 40 thousand receive, equivalent to received the debt of several hundred thousand yuan at the same time.
“Didn’t think you’d die in half a year?”
“It can’t be, it won’t die, it won’t be allowed to die in my hands. There are customers, that’s the resources.”
He is stingy when he is saving money, but generous when he is the boss.
Shang Lihu first step is to improve the food for everyone, do not limit the cooking aunt to buy food budget, please eat every month, birthday cake. He knows better than anyone what blind technicians need most: a sense of belonging.
When he graduated from a school for the blind, He earned 12 yuan per clock, a thousand handfuls of yuan a month and took turns cooking with his colleagues. One time, a colleague of low eyesight cook hate hate way, the pork that the boss buys is taking lymphatic, the appearance that shang Lihu uses up imagination to restore lymphatic, still feel disgusting up to now.
There is a paradox in the work of a chiropractor. It is a profession destined to stay up late, while the many semi-blind chiropractors who eat this bowl of rice are being eaten away by staying up late at a faster rate.
After closing time, the massage table is a bed for technicians, who have to live apart from their wives and children. At the width of 65 cm, if you meet a burly technician, you will have to sleep together. “Work is equivalent to replicating life every day,” Zhang concludes.
In recent years, Shang lihu began to take business management courses every year, believing in the “people-oriented” concept taught in class. In his opinion, only by retaining employees and improving professional level, can customers be retained and expanded.
In the second interview, Bo Wangzhi caught up with the shop to eat laba porridge
A year later, the business went from six or seven hundred to eighteen or nine hundred, and our salaries went up. Shang Has also introduced new rules to encourage people to go out and learn new skills. The cost of learning can be subsidized by the store, and the technicians can share the profits from new services.
Shang recently calculated that the average monthly salary of technicians in 2016 was more than 6,600 yuan, while the “senior technicians” democratically elected on the basis of their comprehensive performance could earn 7,000 to 8,000 yuan a month.
3
In 2010, after careful site selection, Mr. Shang opened a second store in Chaoyang’s Baiziwan district. In 2012, he bought a car, got a driver and was able to move more freely between the two shops, staying for a few days and taking apprentices with him. After the Spring Festival this year, his third store will open in Xibalian.com.
At the end of 2016, Shang Lihu announced a new “equity incentive system” in the store — making key technicians become shareholders and “make the cake bigger” together.
By this year, both of Shanglihu’s stores had not changed technicians for three years, which is rare in the blind massage circle where talents flow frequently. Zhang Youyuan, a young technician, went back to his hometown a few years ago and returned to his shop two years later. Shang Lihu is’ more like a buddy ‘than other bosses, he says.
However, Shang Lihu hopes that after the masseuses who have followed him for many years have some savings, they can gradually transform to the medical industry with the support of massage parlors, and the ultimate goal is to have a hospital exclusive for blind massage, so that all masseuses can truly become massage doctors.
“We all know the knowledge of Traditional Chinese medicine, we are not amateurs ah, for us, nine to five is a dream, I want to let you realize this dream.
Do not remember from what time began, Shang Li tiger found that he even dream of the vision is gradually lost. He always dreamed of math examination room, his primary school still have vision of the right eye to see those numerator and denominator, more and more blurred, but math teacher stood in front of him with a stick pointed at him. The teacher had a conventional sentence pattern many years ago, “What Shang Lihu can do, you all…”
“I don’t like to hear that. Why do they have to be better than Me?”
4
“1+1 Studio” is located in an unremarkable residential building in the south of Beijing, next to two suites whose doors are sandwiched at a right Angle and open to the corridor.
It is noon, the house floated continuously rice incense. The aunt lifted the lid of the electric rice cooker, and the smell of rice burst out in the white steam and filled the room in a short while.
Young people sitting in their respective location banging on the keyboard, a girl sitting in the corner of the room, two eyes almost to stick on the screen, and just came in from the door of another girl face was full of scars, facial features are pulled together, in the studio, there are blind, deaf, cerebral palsy, mutilation, and people with autism, there are also body healthy volunteers.
Yang Qingfeng walked through the rooms with smooth steps and accurate direction, extending his hand to introduce us. There was no sign of a blind man who had lost all sight.
This is a self-help non-profit organization for the disabled. It has a number of magazines, radio programs, WeChat public accounts, and a training program for the disabled in cooperation with the government. Yang qingfeng is the director of the sonic visually impaired partner center, which produces content specifically for the visually impaired.
At noon today, Yang Qingfeng is going to record this week’s radio program. He asked his sighted volunteer assistant to open the studio door and step over the threshold. It is then recorded and sent to trial by Thursday for broadcast on China National Radio every weekend morning.
“Hello listeners, welcome to our visually impaired hotline. I’m Qingfeng.”
Every day, his beautiful Beijing dialect instantly switches to standard Mandarin. Yang Qingfeng sits in a high chair with a professional earphone on his head. His voice is loud and clear, just like copper beans falling into jade plate, cadence and cadence, scattered and well-arranged.
The table in front of him was blank — blind eyes could not see, they could only remember, which is the most normal thing in a blind man’s life.
Yang Qingfeng during the recording of a new radio program
“If I had gone to open a shop, I would have made a lot more money than I do now. But young people, I always think we can find a better and newer path than the blind people before us.”
Yang Qingfeng was one of the few blind people in China who had the chance to go to college, when he studied acupuncture and massage at a university that specialized in special education. Like other blind friends, Yang qingfeng has few sources of information, one of which is radio. Blind since childhood, Yang Qingfeng grew up with a radio. So during college, he was a guest host at Radio Beijing. After graduating from college in 2006, he was accepted into the profession.
In the 2007 Special Olympics, the leaders had the idea of going to the site for interviews. But Yang Qingfeng felt that he did not understand the Special Olympics, also can not see the scene, with a psychological resistance to go to Shanghai.
The next day was a mentally retarded bowling match, he listened to the applause in the arena is not quite the same, asked the people around him to know, the audience has a clapper. The field is not big. Why the clapper? When I had a chance to ask the organizing committee, I found that there was a great knowledge that athletes with intellectual disabilities needed encouragement. If the applause was too low, they might “walk out”. The organizing committee then equipped the clapping apparatus to enhance the atmosphere.
Something similar happened at the closing ceremony. Yang relied on his keen sense of hearing to recognize the multi-tone harmony of the whistles in the audience, and he also checked with the organizing committee. After capturing these two nuances, Yang Qingfeng gave out two manuscripts with unique Angle.
In 2008, through the mediation of the Disabled Persons’ Federation, Yang Qingfeng was registered as the only visually impaired journalist, an identity that was supposed to cover others, but became the focus of many media in China. The slightly fanciful title of “blind reporter” has been splashed across the media.
“Many journalists asked me at that time, Yang Qingfeng, why do you become a reporter? I thought yes, how Did I become a reporter, but suddenly for a moment, I realized that I was too stupid. One more question from me, and I’ll say, you have to tell me why I can’t be a reporter. We’re working on a topic. Can’t I use your manuscript if it works with mine? I don’t think so.”
Can a blind man be a reporter?
He once said yes. But feeling that this was not enough, he stopped answering, and instead tried to climb to the top of the question with his sledgehammer to smash it.
“It is this mindset that limits the development of this group, not only in terms of social attitudes, but also in terms of the people with disabilities themselves.”
5
When Yang qingfeng started his radio career, he produced a show called “DianPingtianxia,” which makes playful commentary on the news and current events of the week.
In this show, unlike later shows, he completely hid his disability. “People don’t know I’m blind, so I’m really good at getting recognition for what I’ve done.”
In one chat, a media veteran said, “The teacher said, ‘After all these years of broadcasting, I now feel that my show is needed.'” This sentence deeply touched Yang Qingfeng at that time. After thinking about it, the team decided to return to the disabled program to show the disabled people’s life and their real thoughts. Before that, they thought it was a very low thing to do the disabled program.
Before that, there were two categories of programs for the disabled. “Or god, how I self-improvement, and then the phoenix nirvana; Otherwise, it is particularly sad, as thousand-hand Avalokitesvara. Two extremes, no normal person.” Yang qingfeng hopes to bring this special group back to the point of view through his own broadcast.
As for the outside world, Yang qingfeng said people want to be called “disabled people”, not “disabled people”. “Disease means illness. You take it as a disease, and you carry it forever. ‘Disabled people are different because barriers can be crossed. We can cross them, just like you.”
Yang Qingfeng skillfully searches for files on his computer with the help of screen reading software
Of course, there are many ordinary people who have been changed by this idea. An aunt who had worked here for ten years did not know how to get along with everyone when she first came. She met each other in the corridor and had no choice but to stand in the middle. After a period of time together, she got used to their way of life. When we take the elevator together, there are often good samaritans who want to help press the floor, the aunt would rush to say, “No, they will press by themselves.”
At the Paralympics that year, the studio provided live commentary for the blind.
During a live broadcast of a blind goalball game, a player was injured and left the field. Many listeners called in to ask how it was. ‘My need was instantly aroused and I wondered if life as a group was just a circle around a massage table. Definitely not.”
Since then, Yang qingfeng has become more widely seen, and he and his studio were once shortlisted for the annual Moving China.
On October 15, 2010, the “1+1 National Visually Impaired Hotline” was launched on the Blind Day. At its peak, hundreds of calls poured in every day. “A lot of people ask, do you know how to use a mobile phone, how to use a computer, where to go to school, how to learn massage, or other people ignore me, the family is not good to me, how to do? The purpose of our hotline is to allow people with disabilities to live as normal lives as ordinary people.”
The 1+1 studio has a special rule — each employee must be able to commute to work independently.
Independence means not only freedom in life, but also basic dignity as an individual. Yang Qingfeng primary school in the blind school, in addition to parents pick up can not go out independently. Homesick, he followed his parents to pick him up from school on A Friday and finally returned to Tongzhou from Haidian after a thrilling and rugged adventure. It was his first trip on his own. “Confidence is a trial, a lot of things don’t try to blindly say I can’t, this is unreasonable.
Now he and his wife, who has low vision, have a bright-eyed three-year-old son. One day the son said he wanted to go out to play, and so did the father. “Said the son.” You can’t see. What are you doing there?”
‘Can’t I go without seeing it?
As he wrote on his studio account: “Don’t be blinded, live free.”
Some questions about the daily life of the blind
Q: Why are there so few blind people on the road?
Shang Lihu: Say nothing else, just say blind alley. I kissed a telephone pole and went to a telephone booth. The stick was sticking out of the bottom, empty, and my head went up. It was really hot. One of my classmates went to Tianjin. As soon as he got out of the railway station, a large square iron pillar stood there and ran into the corner. He banged on the post, and the police came and shouted, What do you want? It knocked him down, and his left eyebrow is still broken.
Q: What do you usually do with your mobile phone? Do you often listen to TV dramas and movies?
Shang Lihu: I’m not interested in movies. Recently I listened to a TV play is the Man, I listen to the receptionist girl always watch, that night I drink by myself, search to listen to, a listen also addicted to listen to. Usually listen to books, listen to the radio have, we are more sensitive to the software’s sound effect and sound quality. I am interested in social news, financial news and automobile. I also read the subscription number of economic management. I used to sing for a while and send flowers.
Q: It is said that blind people can also play cards?
Lv Chunqing (shang Li Hu friend, massage shop owner) : often fried golden flowers. There is braille on the card, but the special card for the blind is too fragile and easy to break, so we make it by ourselves.
Q: What is it like to be blind and have a dream?
Elder sister shang (receptionist aunt) : 6 master is 17 years old accident, so he knows everything, he dreams about the things he went to school before, before he saw things. There are still colors and things in the dream, the same as before.
Shang Lihu: There will be new things in dreams, not just the old ones. And I dreamed I was driving my own car! But I don’t know from when, can’t see clearly. When I first lost my sight, I could see in my dreams, but now it’s all hazy.
Q: What is the social status of blind people?
Yang Qingfeng: Mostly in their own small circle of contacts. Ordinary people or to see you poor, to donate some money to you, no one said we drink some bar, sing a K. Unless when talking about a girlfriend, you can really look at it from a head-to-head perspective.
Q: Have you ever been troubled by the help of a kind person?
Yang Qingfeng: Every time I go to the street, there are a lot of good people who pull my rod up and walk away. But I think you don’t want me to stick my rod on the ground. I don’t think I have a bottom in my hand.
Q: Do you think it will have any effect on children growing up in such a disabled family?
Yang Qingfeng: After he went to school, some classmates would laugh at him because of this. This is an objective phenomenon. However, I will still attend the parents’ meeting, so I can’t avoid this issue. The important thing is that my attitude affects my child’s opinion, and I want to help him accept this fact. Growing up in such a family can be a richer experience and more inclusive than others.
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