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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 12th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2009> The Angel of Sunflower - Hsu Shu-hsu
Playing the piano and typing on the keyboard with one toe
      Hsu Shu-hsu, female, second year student at Weekend Enterprise Management department at National Formosa University , was born on February 28, 1973 in Yunlin County . She was born with severe cerebral palsy and her hands and feet was seriously deformed and could not take care of her own living. However, she was optimistic and positive and refused to give out any opportunities in life. By studying at home, she passed high school entrance examination process. Although she could only use the second toe of her right foot for typing on PC, she never filed for absence during her three years in high school. She did her best with an optimistic attitude and worked extremely hard and completed her studies in the Information Science Management Department at Transworld Institute of Technology with top grades. Next, she was recommended to go to National Formosa University , which was closest to her home by recommendation. She often tells people: “I would like to continue studying and I hope to study abroad and be an author in the future.” As a strong sunflower that desires to only face the sun despite any possible difficulty, her academic pursuit from elementary school all the way up to university was full of trials and difficulties. With her parents' tender care and the compassion from schools as well as social service groups, she grew. She received the 5 th “IT Sunflower Example of Excellence Award”; in 2005. She received the “Cheng Feng Si Scholarship”, and in 2006, she received the “Transworld Institute of Technology Department of Extension Scholarship”.
      Today, Hsu Shu-hsu spends most of her time in front of a PC. She spent many years learning about different subjects in computing, including document processing or internet application, at Transworld Institute of Technology, National Formosa University . Lin Yueh-chin, her mother, recalled that because there was no elevator to reach the 3 rd floor, where the computer classroom was, she and a social worker often had to carry Shu-hsu to the class for lessons.
      Shu-hsu has been ill for all of her life and she did not get the opportunity as well as having enough stamina to learn computer until she was 26. She could only use the second toe of her right foot to move the mouse and type the keyboard letter by letter. She depends heavily on information network and she established a blog to communication with friends and meet friends online in order to share her stories and using them to encourage people that need help. She's quite thankful that Wang Li-jie and a bunch of her online friends often cheer her up. As “Xu Er”, she's immersed in personal home page, ICQ chat room and email. As “Xu Er”, she tells others that she's a wild and rather mischievous girl. She says that her net world personality represents the real “Hsu Shu-hsu” and she can only feel the side that she cannot express in the real world online. When she talked about using her toes to press the keyboard and operating the mouse, she typed “quite difficult” 4 times and “extremely difficult” once to describe her process of learning. Lin Yueh-chin, her mother, said that before learning computer, Shu-hsu learned to play the electronic keyboard and it took an extraordinary amount of patience to learn how to play/use the devices with her toe.
      Can you believe that someone can play the keyboard and use the PC with just one toe? Shu-hsu, with serious deformed hands and feet, learned to play the electronic keyboard and enter Chinese on the PC with her perseverance. Her mother said that each step was impossibly difficult.
      Hsu Shu-hsu, at 35 years old, was born with seriously deformed hands and feet and her spine could not support her weight. Therefore, she depended on her family for things like going to the bathroom and eating. However, her father Hsu Yao-wen (deceased) and her mother Lin Yueh-chin, did not give up on her.
      During her 6 years in elementary school, her parents took term to carry to on their backs to Da Tuen Elementary school. Because she could not care for herself, her parents often stayed outside of the classroom in order to “serve” her. During junior high, she attended Yunlin Junior High. In order to take care of her, Hsu Yao-wen and Lin Yueh-chin actually went to the classes for GED classes; their determination and caring became a story of courage that was widely spread.
      After completing the GED, her parents were worried that Shu-hsu would be bored and they “begged” Ms. Chen Yi-jun to teach her piano. Ms. Chen saw how curled Shu-hsu's fingers and toes were, and she was afraid that she could not learn anything. Unexpectedly, with her determination and perseverance, Shu-hsu learned to play the keyboard with one toe; she played classics like “Small River” and “The Whisper of the West Wind”, which comforted the heart of her parents.
      After becoming proficient on the piano, her parents sent her to Yunlin Industrial Vocational High School to attend Prof. Lin Guo-huang's computer class. Because the keys of a PC keyboard were small, it was very hard for Shu-hsu to press the keys with her toe. She learned to use her toes to pinch a pen and use the pen to hit the keys. With that, she learned to enter Chinese. During the process of learning, her toes become bruised. So far, she typed about more than ten thousand words.
      Hsu Shu-hsu has been able to overcome her handicaps and walk out of the darkness to face the light. She used her toe to type and to play the piano. She was determined to go to university and to study abroad. Also, she wanted to be like Liu Xia and became a writer. She wants to care for others and transform her love for life into a force to break barriers and pass on love to everyone .