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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 13th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2010> A Doctor of Cerebral Palsy─Meillian Hwang
Living colorfully, depicting hope
      The painter Meillian Hwang was a victim of cerebral palsy, a person who showed no signs about her intelligence and physical ability before six. Cerebral palsy took away her motor nerve and destructed her sense of balance; she could neither talk nor move freely, but she received a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Art, University of California , and was awarded the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award by virtue of her strenuous endurance and adhering belief. She set herself as an example for others and helped others. She often said, “I only see what I have, not what I don't have.”
 
 
The precious child given by God
      Born in 1964, Tainan , an accident caused Meillian to suffer from cerebral palsy. The disease destroyed her motor nerve and language nerve. Since childhood, she could only lay flat on the bed or on the ground. Although she tried to crawl walking, she kept falling on the ground with a drooling mouth, like a mentally ill person. The doctor predicted that she not live over six.
      Her parents took her to see different doctors. Whenever they learned about new medicine, they would search for it. Although her health showed no sign of improvement, her parents refused to give up on her and even cared more about her. Whenever they had time, they would hold her, play with her, and read her Bible stories. They were not ashamed to hold her out to visit friends: they would introduce her to their friends and said, “This is my daughter. God loves her. We also love her.” This influenced her deeply. Despite her physical disability, she knew well that God and her family would always stand by her and love her.
 
 
Sarcastic ridicule from neighbors
      While in kindergarten, she was sent to her grandparents' shop after school. In the night time, her parents would take her home after work. She loved to stay in the shop because there were many people walking around, and it was much more interesting than staring at the ceiling and looking out through the window at home.
      Her nanny took her to the kindergarten every day. She appeared as an outsider in class because she could neither use sign language nor write. In the eyes of others, she was just a freak without hope. Seeing the skin and strange look of her, some neighbors even told her grandmother, “Only circus will accept your granddaughter!” At that moment, her mother just patted her, wiped out her saliva, and said nothing, which contrasted a lot from her passionate and kind look. Neighbors felt boring and left. After they left, her grandmother held her tightly and firmly. In retrospect, she understood now her grandmother had suffered from others' sarcasm and mockery, so now she could strongly face others' disdained eyes.
 
 

Being responsible for one's own life
      Meillian's mother accompanied her while she struggled to grow up. Before going to elementary school, her mother taught her to read every day. Until she could pronounce every word she read, and until her intelligence was identified as normal, her parents finally decided to send her to school. However, the first problem she encountered was that she could not control writing at her will. Every day her mother held her hand and helped her with every stroke she wrote down on the paper. Her mother wanted to teach her one thing—to be responsible for her own life—since a mother could only help her, and could not act as a substitute of her. She spent the whole year to practice writing, and could finally control her hand to write and paint when she reached the second grade.
      Her second year in elementary school was the turning point in her life. One time she took art class, her teacher Ma Yi Chiang discovered her talents in painting and encouraged her, “Meillian, you're gifted in art. You need to learn appropriately and be a good painter in the future!” “Could I be a good painter?” Her mind was imbued with this beautiful ideal!
      Because of her cerebral palsy, she was often chased and hit by other children with hands or sticks in countryside; some classmates deliberately bullied her. A girl even told her, “Look at your appearance! It would be useless no matter how good you do in school.” Hearing what she said, she was furious and humiliated, but she could not find a right word to fight back. Her response was to avoid going to school. Her mother forced her to wear the uniform and sent her to school despite her ballistic behavior. Her teacher Wu Sui-Wei knew the reason that she refused to go to school and said to her, “Meillian, you loved to read. Do not give up studying what you like because of others' criticism. If you like writing, you should read more to enrich yourself. This is your responsibility to make others respect you. God helps those who help themselves.” After hearing what her teach said, she realized that she should not look down upon herself because of others' criticism, and should not give up hear ideal due to malignant languages. She told herself to study hard and to become an artist in the future. She set an ideal for herself—to become an esteemed person.
 
 
Standing on her own as a college junior

      Her family migrated to the US when she was 14 years old. She spent three years adjusting to American culture and the language barrier. Whenever she could not accept foreign culture and the American way of life, she thought about the unequal treatment that she encountered in her childhood. In spite of her hardship and suffering during the course of learning, she achieved the standard she set for herself step by step. She not only had to endure her disability but also others' unkind treatment psychologically. Though sometimes malicious words and violent behaviors were like sharp blades that made her feel as if a knife were piercing her heart, she learned to toughen herself and mended her tormented heart, so that external harms could not hurt her.
      After graduating from high school in 1983, she decided to major in art and minor in psychology. She first studied at Eastern Los Angeles College , and then at California State University , Los Angeles . At first, she felt deeply self-abased while she walked in campus and saw other classmates, because she had stayed in a high school for disabled students for five years. She felt no sense of security after shifting to the new environment, but she worked hard on being a good student.
      In order to make herself a better sketch painter, she broke countless charcoal crayons while painting. Because of her uncoordinated sports nerves, she typed much slower than others, and thus the time she spent more time on studying. Though it was faster for her to write than to type, she had to type up her reports, since it was the rule set by her professors. Unlike others who spent one or two hours on typing, she had to spend seven to eight hours on doing it. Beyond that, she often revised her reports again and again when she took her interested subjects, and hence she spent more time on her study. But no pains, no gains. She earned her scholarship and never asked her family to pay her tuition and living expenses. Because she never asked a dime from her family, and her habit of using her scholarship wisely since her junior year in college, her parents felt at ease to allow her to work at Taiwan alone.
 
 

Dr. Meillian Hwang
      Once she learned that YMCA was holding a free activity for children of cerebral palsy to learn swimming and improve their physical coordination through buoyancy and wave forces. She felt that that if she had the opportunity to attend this kind of activities, her childhood would be happier. In light of this, she wrote a letter to the host organization and expressed her desire to do them a favor. She got her response immediately with a letter saying, “You could come to Taiwan to have your painting exhibition, and tell others your story. Let others know what cerebral palsy is and let others learn how to respect these children and adults.” At that time, she just gradated from college and instantly decided to donate all her painting for sell, and establish foundation for the disable's potentiality development. At the end of the painting exhibition, she went back to the US and continued schooling at her graduate school.
      For her Ph.D. qualification exam, she had to spend seven or eight hours to practice painting, while typing up her dissertation at the same time and sent it to her instructor for review. Her life was busy and nervous, and her mood was unavoidably unstable and agitated, but she prayed to God, using a peaceful attitude to face the questions proposed by the committee comprised of eight art professors. She responded them by writing the answers on the white board. After discussion, those professors decided to grant her the Ph.D. degree.
 
 

I only see what I have, not what I don't have
      In 1993, Meillian decided to go back to Taiwan to work after she got her Ph.D. degree. She could have stayed around her parents for her life, but she chose to work in Taiwan with her friends. Living independently means that she must face different difficulties. She thought that, life was coexisted with other hardships, so we could not blame others. The more we blame others, the more hatred we harbor in or mind. This is not beneficial for us, and detrimental to our families and friends, which generates more pressure and conflicts. She face her life predicaments with a peaceful mind, changed herself piece by piece, and tried to influence her surrounding environment gradually. In spite of the environment's resistance to change, she still did everything with courage and a humble mind.
      Different life stages are associated with different responsibilities. In the beginning, she taught children painting at YMCA Yun-chi Branch. Later on, she started to teach adults arts at YWCA and Sunshine Social Welfare Organization. Even though she could not speak, she was still capable of teaching a large group of children. She also published two albums of painting and four books. Although she was a child almost given up by her others, often misunderstood and mocked by others, still worrying about crossing the streets when she returned to Taiwan from the US, she still believed that as long as she loved her life, did her own duty, all puzzles, despair, and disappointment will be gone. She often consoled and guided those who faced the same life condition as her, encouraging them to lead their life with more confidence and more power, since they could only learn to cherish what they owned and valued bigger success through experience of failure.