Every night in a massage shop in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province in southwest China, after the last customer leaves, the five masseurs there and a friend pick up their musical instruments and begin creating their own world of symphony.

They have three guitars, a second-hand electronic keyboard, a drum and a 20-yuan ($3) flute and the shop is smaller than 10 square meters. Yet this is their haven where they look for happiness in darkness. All the five masseurs are visually impaired.

Bond of music

Yang Zhi, the leader of the band, lost his sight in an accident when he was 8. The world of colors disappeared from his life and he felt desolate. Then one day he heard popular singer Xu Wei singing and regained confidence and strength from the rhythms and lyrics.

It inspired him to learn to play the guitar by himself. He asked others to buy guitar books and read them aloud for him, and then practiced according to the instructions. It took him two to three months to learn to play one single song.

Later, when he went to the Guizhou Forerunner College to learn massaging, he became acquainted with Chen Changhai, who is also visually impaired and loves music.

They wanted to find more people to make music with them and form a band. When they told the school about it, the authorities not only helped them find other band members but also gave them 10,000 yuan ($1,532) as seed fund.

In the beginning, Chen had qualms as he couldn't play any instrument but Yang drew on his own experience of learning the guitar to encourage him and other members of the band, who couldn't play any musical instrument either.

It took them much longer than the average band but after several months, they were ready to perform together.

Sadly, in 2014, the band had to be disbanded as the members graduated and went to different places to work. However, Chen's love of music never subsided. In 2015, after working in Beijing for less than a year, he returned to Guiyang and opened a massage shop with the help of his former teacher and friends. Then he persuaded Yang, who was working in south China, to come back to join him to continue their pursuit of music.

In January 2018, their new band was formed. It was named Zheergen because all the members love eating zheergen, the fish-smelling herb also known as fish wort, popular in southwest China. Also, the members identify themselves with the plant that grows in darkness but craves for light.

Peng Wanhai, a courier who had studied in the same college with them, also joined them, inspired by their courage in the face of their difficulties in life.

The band put on their first performance at the Shuidong Community Cultural Center in Guiyang on May 18, 2018. They played over 10 songs, two of which were their own compositions. Since then, the band has created nearly 10 songs.

The masseurs earn 1,000 ($153) to 2,000 yuan ($306) a month and equipment for the band is expensive. However, their love of music has given them the power to persist.

In September, the story of the band was reported by state broadcaster China Central Television and the musicians gained greater attention. Their videos on short video platform Douyin were viewed almost 800,000 times, a jump from the earlier few hundreds.

Art of self-discovery

Many others with disabilities have also found happiness and realized their personal value in art.

Li Yan teaches children with disabilities at a special education school in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China. She is a graduate from a dance college. "Dance is a part of aesthetics education at special education schools. We want to give our students more options by teaching them dancing," she told China News Service.

When Li first became involved in special education, her students had hearing and speech disabilities and she floundered to communicate with them. "I empathized with them but I didn't know how to communicate with them," she said. "So I started learning sign language to be able to interact with them."

Once she could communicate with the children using sign language, they became her friends.

Dancing requires synchronizing moves and facial expressions with the music, which is an additional task for those who can't hear or speak. To create a sense of rhythm, Li asked her students to keep track of the tempo by counting silently so that they could do the moves correctly.

While the sense of tempo can be nurtured through repeated practice, Li thinks the most difficult thing is to convey the right emotions while dancing. So before teaching a dance, she tells the children what the dance is about to make them better understand it.

Talking about the changes in the children after they learned to dance, Li said they have become more outgoing and more confident as they have acquired a new skill.

In 2017, to her pride, her students participated in the Ninth National Disability Art Festival, which is held every four years, and won a special award.

"As my students were starters while the other dance troupes we competed with were professional ones, we were given a special award as an acknowledgement and encouragement," she said.

Art has not only enriched the students' life but also given them more career choices. Now three of her students have been recruited by dance colleges, she said.

"Art education is an important part of special education. Children with hearing impairment can learn dancing while visually impaired students can learn to play musical instruments and sing," she said. "In addition, our school has opened cooking, hairdressing and manicure courses. We hope the children acquire professional skills so that they can better fit into society."

This year, the 29th International Day of Persons with Disabilities, December 3, had the theme "Building back better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world."

China has over 85 million people with disabilities, 32 million of whom are of working age. But according to the China Disabled Persons Federation, only 8.55 million people with disabilities are employed, including farmers, indicating an employment rate of less than 27 percent.

However, it's notable that the Internet has provided people with disabilities more employment opportunities, such as engaging in e-commerce.

(Print Edition Title:  From Darkness To Happiness)    

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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