In March,
I went to a party to celebrate the end of a voluntary art project which a group
of teenagers including me had cooperated with three disabled artists. They were
Christine, a lightly mentally handicapped ballerina, Sing Lee, a vison impaired
pianist, and Jason, a hip-hop dancer with speech and hearing disorders. All of
them joined the party and Sing even brought along his brother, Hin, who was
visually impaired too. The party was held in a studio where the whole project
was carried out.
I’m going
to share two moments which were so impressive that I’d never forget. The first
one was the ‘music time’. Eating some snacks, Sing and Hin were invited to play
the piano and this livened the party up. They moved their fingers on the
keyboard incredibly skillfully and pleasing melody entered my ears. What surprised
me more was that they’re good at not only classical music but also a wide
variety of styles from pop music to opera. Listening to somebody humming a song
they’d never heard of, they could play it after trying a few pitches for a few
seconds. Besides, the pronunciation of the lyrics sung by them was so crystal
clear that I could not help dropping tears.
The
second moment was the conversation between Sing and Jason. You may ask what was
so special. But In my eyes, it was droll and inspirational. Don’t forget their
physical constraints. Sing has speech and hearing disorders and Jason’s
visually impaired. Can you imagine how
they could express themselves and make the other one understand what they mean?
Well, when Sing was speaking, Jason read his lips. When Jason replied to Sing
by touching and moving Sing’s body. They kept communicating in this way for a
while effectively. It was amazing!
They’re
really brilliant. I mean they showed their abilities of breaking through their
physical limitations which they couldn’t change. I can’t image how great the
efforts they’ve made on learning to play the piano since they have only ten
percent of vision. It seems that the piano has become part of their bodies. What
was appreciated was that they enjoyed music with cordial smiles. As I’m
involved in art as well, I do really understand how our physical confinement
restricts our accomplishments in art. I therefore truly admire Sing and Hin.
What’s
more, I think we ordinary people can’t have any excuses for being lazy any
more. As what I’ve mentioned, the two disabled boys communicated effectively. This
has changed my perception of possibility because they made something impossible
possible. So I can no long give any excuses like “I haven’t got the time”, “I
can’t do it” or “It’s impossible”. Actually, when I “watched” the conversation
between Jason and Sing, I noticed their limitations and their greatness at the
same time. I felt my limitation because I’d thought they’re limited by their
physical constraints. Most people may think the world of the disabled must be
very small. Take Sing as an example. You may expect his life boring because he
can’t see and this makes him miss a lot of wonderful scenes in his life. But I
don’t think so. As he can’t see well, he can listen more and clearer. As he has
to rely on sounds, his hearing is so sensitive that he can even notice a
mistune of a tiny pitch. I believe his world of music must be larger than those
of many ‘normal’ people.
What I
want to say is that although the social life of the disabled may not be as
versatile as those of ordinary people, their mind can be broader than ours.
This is what we should learn from them.
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