Wheelchair-bound Yi Xiaoyuan has never let his physical condition hold him back. Now a studentat Beijing's Tsinghua University, he tells Nick Compton that his misfortunes have made himstronger.
When he talks about his disability, Yi Xiaoyuan has a seriouslook on his face. His voice doesn't halter and his gaze doesn'twander. He has been in a wheelchair for 10 years, since hewas 11 years old and his rheumatoid arthritis worsened.
With his mother sitting next to him in his dorm room at Tsinghua University, his responses aremeasured, and his voice confident. He wants you to know about his disability not because heconsiders himself exceptional, but because in China, disability is often not spoken about with thiskind of frank openness.
"Disabled people in China don't need money or sympathy," Yi says. "What they need is achance."
Now in his second year as a computer-science major at Tsinghua,Yi has received that chance.
The China Disabled People's Federation estimates that in 2012,there were up to 8,000 students with disabilities in China's higher-education system.
Staying with Yi in a firstfloor dorm room next to his - connected by ashared foyer, a kitchenette and bathroom - is his mother, GuoQiongfen. She left behind her job as a nursing teacher, as well her10-year-old daughter and husband 2,700 km away in Yuxi, Yunnanprovince, to care for her only son in Beijing. Although both of themhave effusive praise for the help Tsinghua has given them, financialand otherwise, they acknowledge that without her help Yi couldn'tshoulder the burdens of student life.
"My family means everything to me," he says.
Besides the 20-minute journey to class every day in his electricwheelchair, his mother helps him wash, dress and do other things many of us take for granted.With her background in medicine, she also directs his daily therapy sessions. The price of theiraccommodation includes cleaning by the dormitory staff, but she politely declines the service anduses her spare time to sweep and mop the tiled floor. She doesn't want to be a burden, she says.
Upon applying to Tsinghua, Yi was contacted by an admissions representative who promised hewouldn't be turned away because of his disability. Yi was advised which majors would be themost feasible and which, like automotive engineering, would be next-to-impossible. Because theChinese student dormitories were not wheelchair-accessible, he was offered a comparativelyplush international student dorm room for the same price, 1,500 yuan ($246) per year. For herroom, Guo pays the full international price of 80 yuan per day (roughly 2,400 yuan per month).
单词：
barrier 障碍 gaze 凝视 sympathy 同情 worsen 使更坏 halter 束缚
句子：
His voice doesn't halter and his gaze doesn't wander.
他的声音没有束缚并且他的目光没有徘徊。
With his mother sitting next to him at his dorm at Tsinghua University, his responses are measured and his voice is confident. He wants you know about his disability not because he considers himself exceptional, but because in China,disability is often not spoken about this kind of frank openess.
他的妈妈在清华大学他的寝室陪他的时候，他的回答是深思熟虑的，他的声音是自信的。他想要你们知道关于他的残疾，不是因为他确定他自己是特别的，只是因为在中国，残疾是不经常坦白公开的这样说。