Star uses gift of gab to garner opportunity
Raised by disabled parents in Ningxia, Li Yang expresses pride that he has the ability to repay them for their sacrifices
A presenter for Yinchuan Media Group, a news organization in the capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, recently made headlines after appearing on a China Central Television singing program.
Li Yang, the 29-year-old presenter, garnered 2 million followers on social media platforms, including short-video app Douyin, by posting videos in which he plays multiple roles depicting scenes from his life.
Many of his plays were inspired by the lives of his parents. The prototype for his protagonist — a fictional woman named Chunxiang — was his mother. In his most-viewed video, he played both Chunxiang and her husband in a dialogue that mocks husbands’ answers of “Whatever” to their wives’ questions about everyday situations such as what to eat for dinner.
Speaking in the local dialect and acting with proper costumes and vivid expressions, the one-minute video gathered 1.3 million “likes” on Douyin. In one example of life’s little ironies, Li’s parents, who can’t hear or speak, managed to raise a child who later chose communication as a career. And now he is playing characters based on them.
Li’s mother was born with the condition, while his father lost the ability to hear and speak after contracting brain fever at age 5 and not getting proper treatment. “I have to imagine the tones because I don’t know how they would talk,” Li said after his TV performance.
Family members worried Li would have hearing problems like his mother when he was born.
“My grandmother made a loud noise on purpose to test my reaction, and she felt greatly relieved when I responded to the sound,” he said.
With little education, his parents never learned sign language in school; instead, they invented a series of unique actions to convey meanings that only family members could understand.
“But sometimes they have difficulty expressing their emotions and spiritual needs, so I always keep an eye on their appearances to gauge their mood,” Li said, adding that he often uses exaggerated expressions and actions to communicate with his parents.
Li said they overcame many obstacles to raise him as best they could.
One winter night when he was a baby, he fell from the heated bed onto the cold ground. Though he cried loudly, his parents couldn’t hear him and slept on until their neighbor broke a window and poked them with a stick to wake them up.
“By then, my legs were frozen and had turned purple,” he said. “The dimple on my face is actually a scar that was caused by that accident. Luckily, it’s in the right place,” Li joked.
When he was child, he worried his parents couldn’t protect him. Some of his childhood peers teased them. One boy even dragged Li into a waterfilled trench, causing him to fall ill.
“My parents stopped the guy who did this to me and asked him to apologize, and he really did. I began to realize that my parents were stronger than I thought,” Li said, adding that since then nobody ever bullied him.
Li’s parents worked hard to earn money, hoping he would receive an education like other children, but because of their disabilities, it wasn’t easy for them to find good jobs.
Li decided to study hard and help his parents live a decent life.
At college in Yunnan province, he showed a knack for hosting big events and won several competitions in moderating and acting.
Although Li received well-paid offers from big companies in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, before graduation, he chose to take a job at a county-level TV station in Yinchuan.
“As my parents cannot talk, I feel really lucky to be able to speak and wanted to maximize this language ability,” he said. ”That’s why I chose my career.”
Driven by his love for acting, Li also tried to get into show business. But he rejected several opportunities because they would have kept him far away from parents.
In 2017, he returned to the TV screen and started working for Yinchuan Media Group.
As short-video apps became prevalent among young people, Li found a channel to both share his passion for acting and record his parents’ lives.
Though Li’s parents can’t hear him speak, they still turn on the TV and watch their son’s programs, and they have “liked” every short video he has posted on Douyin.
His acting talent and hard work were soon recognized by viewers, and his popularity won him a spot on the CCTV program Yuezhan Yueyong, which means “The more obstacles you overcome, the braver you will be”. He traveled to the capital to shoot the episode, which aired on March 10, and his parents came along.
“It was their first time to Beijing and the first time they ever took a plane. I feel proud that many people like me, either as a presenter or video blogger, and I’m able to take care of my parents, who have always supported me in their own way,” he said.