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Profile: Meet Jiang Hua, a visually impaired masseur spreading light

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E-mail Xinhua, December 18, 2020

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by Xinhua writer Chu Yi

FUZHOU, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- It took Jiang Hua years to find a way out of darkness, but he has spent his whole life working to bring light to others.

"I found myself unable to see words clearly in books in primary school, and when I was 14, my world fell into complete darkness due to glaucoma," said 39-year-old Jiang, a native of Yangyuan, a mountainous village in the city of Sanming, east China's Fujian Province.

Medical treatment can prevent the disease from leading to complete vision loss, however, Jiang's family was too poor to afford even matches costing 0.50 yuan (about 8 U.S. cents), let alone timely treatment. Though he performed well in school, he had to drop out in the fourth grade.

"I was so desperate, confining myself at home every day," said Jiang. "Just after I lost my sight, I had to cross a street of just 5 meters, and I assumed thousands of eyes were on me and that people were pointing and laughing at me."

Jiang said he was overwhelmed by so much helplessness and self-humiliation. "I rushed out only to find I had stepped in cow dung, and I lost myself to a sense of shame. I then turned around as fast as I could but hit a bicycle head-on."

"I really wished I could hide underground," Jiang said. "I cried and wondered why there were endless obstacles and what on earth I could do to make a living except for begging on the streets."

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Jiang's life began to look up in 1997 when Huang Jinlian, the then head of the Sanming Special Education School, visited Jiang's village to enroll new students.

"I dreamed of going to school, but was over the target age as Huang was looking for kids suitable for primary to junior high school," Jiang said. "Fortunately, the headmaster was moved by my eagerness for knowledge and made an exception."

"You could say that she saved me from the edge of death. I had considered killing myself at my darkest time," Jiang said.

To catch up with the rest of the class, the hardworking boy learned braille in just two months. "My fingers would scan a book in braille from the moment I woke up, and I kept learning the skill even in my dreams. I loved reading so much that my fingers often bled."

It was at the special education school that Jiang learned that differently abled people could also go to college. Determined, Jiang traveled to Luoyang, a city in central China's Henan Province more than 1,300 km from his hometown, after graduating from junior high school in 2001.

"I applied for a massage major at the technical secondary school of the Henan University of Chinese Medicine, as many blind people in China work as massage therapists," Jiang said.

To save on travel expenses, Jiang headed north alone. "I took about 1,000 yuan with me, sewing the money into my underwear for fear of losing it."

"After boarding the train, I was at a total loss. I stayed at the junction of the carriages for a very long time, reluctant to ask for help and unwilling to admit I was blind due to my sense of inferiority," said Jiang. He finally gathered all his courage and asked a passing crew member to help him find his seat.

Jiang said many kindhearted people helped him to complete the examination successfully. Winning a scholarship every year, Jiang studied hard and returned to the city of Sanming in 2004 after his graduation.

GIVING BACK

When Jiang returned home, the city's disabled persons' federation was holding massage training classes for the blind, and Jiang was employed as a part-time teacher. To help more students find jobs, Jiang, who had always wanted to give back to society, decided to open a massage salon. But he did not expect to experience another bleak period.

"Honestly, I was as poor as church mouse at the start of the business. I only had my passion to help others. I borrowed money from everyone I could to open the salon," he said. "I believed everything would be alright as long as it could be opened."

The reality, however, offered Jiang a slap to the face. With few customers, he was unable to afford the rent for the first half of the year. To save money, he even made his massage bed himself.

"I would often lock myself up in a small black room, blaming myself for opening the salon as my wife and some college classmates had come to Sanming to start the massage business with me," he said. "I felt so sorry for failing their trust. It was an invisible pressure that suffocated me."

"Luckily, there's always a way out. More people knew us through a bunch of public welfare activities we organized, and by the end of 2005, we were able to make ends meet," said Jiang.

So far, the masseur, who began with only one salon of about 100 square meters, has opened three massage salons in Sanming, covering a total of nearly 700 square meters.

Jiang also established a blind volunteer team of about 150 people in 2012, arranging more than 400 free massages during the past eight years and giving over 100 lectures.

Though the output value of his massage salons has hit 2 million yuan, Jiang has never retired from his career as a masseur. Focusing on pediatric massage, Jiang now treats about 50 children a day.

According to him, studying has always been one of his favorite things. He graduated from junior college in 2008 and obtained his bachelor's degree in 2015, majoring in acupuncture and massage.

As a teacher, Jiang has trained more than 900 blind students over the past 16 years and helped more than 300 people to find jobs.

"When I was young and poor, I never thought that one day I would have the ability to give back to society," he said. "As a blind person myself, I know this group well. I dare not stop as I want to help more people suffering from visual impairment, lighting up their darkness, just as I've been helped." Enditem