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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 12th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2009> The Diving Bell Warrior with a Single Finger ─Zhang Yun-Cheng
A Single Finger Online Dealer ‧ The Disadvantaged's Helper
      Zhang Yun-Cheng, who has muscular dystrophy, was judged by a doctor that he could not have lived older than 28 years old. His abnormal condition started at three, he could barely hold up a pillow at ten. At sixteen, he completely lost his ability to walk; while at his twenty, he could not even raise his arms over his head. However, learned by himself, he spent four years to finish his book If I Were to Walk for Three Days bits by bits, which consisted of about one hundred and seventy thousand words. Unfortunately, a week after the book was published, not only the wish of walking for three days not realized, his index finger—the only motile finger besides his middle finger, was also paralyzed. He did not, however, give himself up to fate; he continued his writing with his only finger. He also started to invest on his online shop, to earn his own living. In his shop, he sells his own books and his third elder brother Yun-Peng's painting and donates the income to other disadvantaged friends.
 
 
[A Chinese Version of Diving Bell and Butterfly ]
      Zhang Yun-Cheng was born in Heilongjiang in 1980. The abnormal condition started at his three. When other children could run around, Yun-Cheng had to take rest after a short walk. His parents noticed that, and brought him to various doctors. Medicine at that time was not developed enough, so there was no conclusive evidence about what condition he had, though every test pointed to muscular dystrophy. At his eight, when Yun-Cheng went to primary school for the first time, all children went to the playground in the afternoon break. His teacher let him sat on a stool under the eaves to see. That was a windy and cloudy day; plus, he sat for a long time, so he became sick when he returned home. That day was the only day he went to school. Whenever other children went to school with their schoolbags, Yun-Cheng could only sat in his home and looked at them with thirst. He often thought, “My third elder brother and I are worse than criminals! We are sentenced to life; we will never be released, we will be locked in this cramped ‘prison' forever.”
 
 
[Fighting against the Sickness to Prolong the Ability to Walk]
      While Yun-Cheng could still walk with a cane, he loved to experience the feeling of “walking by oneself”. Even in a freezing day, he would still insist to walk, for he knew that every time his condition worsened, he would feel further and further away from the world. Eventually, his legs gradually lost their mobility, and even a step was difficult for him. The heavier his legs became, however, the more stubborn he wanted to walk. Finally, he could not walk fast and could not even cross the doorsill. At that day, he was afraid to let his family know about this. He waited until they were away from the door, and he crawled over the doorsill, went back to his bed and stood up quickly. He could only escape his pain like this, and kept his sadness in his heart to conceal it from his family. As his condition worsened, he depended more and more on things around him to support his body. In order to prevent the condition from worsening, he insisted on exercising and walked every day, but reality was that he lost even his ability to stand up. He suffered, and thought of committing suicide, he even prepared his suicide note. However, he then thought, “My death would mean nothing; it would only increase my family's grieves. Besides, I am only seventeen, there are a lot of things I want to know; I still want to live.” He then gradually accepted the reality. As he could not have stop the condition from worsening, he started to learn and to do whatever he should, to make his future better and not to waste his life.
 
 
[The Difficulties to Write; A One-hundred-seventy-thousand-word Autobiography Finished in Four Years]
      In 1996, Yun-Cheng's second elder brother, who used to stay with him wherever they went, had to learn car interior decorating in Liaoning . Yun-Cheng's life became gloomy. He knew that he had to change, and there had to be some way to leave such situation. He was helpless and bewildered; in order to express his pain, he wrote a letter to the only newspaper office—Heilongjiang Broadcasting & Television Corporation. Actually, he did not place any expectation on the letter; he just wanted to find a way to express himself. Unexpectedly, due to this letter, he became acquainted with a mental tutor who changed his destiny—Chang Da-Nuo (an editor and journalist of Heilongjiang Broadcasting & Television News). Da-Nuo encouraged Yun-Cheng to pursue his dream, and arranged for him a serious of writing lessons, besides posing targets for him and led him forwards steps by steps. Finally, after four years, Yun-Cheng finished his book If I Were to Walk for Three Days .
 
 
[Flying Against the Current; Thriving Online Business with Divided Labours]
      In 2004, Yun-Cheng, his third elder brother who also has muscular dystrophy, and his second elder brother together moved into a part of an old four-section compound with tile walls in an rural area near Beijing (about six ping). The small place was divided into two: one part was for his second brother's three-member family, the other was for Yun-Cheng and his third elder brother to sleep and to use internet. There was nothing besides mud, lime, choking smell of sour, and computers. Yun-Cheng ran his online business with his only moveable finger. He sold paintings drew by his third elder brother, Yun-Peng, and his own book. It is unbelievable that the initial income of this family of five came from the sales of the paintings drew by Yun-Cheng with his “head”.
      A different way of thinking enabled him to fly in a different way. Chang Da-Nuo said, “Most people would only think about what problems one would encounter when despaired; but Yun-Cheng would, instead, think about what he should do.” In order to do well in his business, he often visited forums to learn various skills of online auction. With his middle finger, he entered specifications of his products, uploaded images, and taught his second brother how to photo the products. Works that one would usually need twenty minutes to finish would take him an hour. The annual turnover of Yun-Cheng's online shop was only $120,000 RMB ($500,000 NTD); but that was a business done by his last moveable finger. He was awarded the Touching Chinese Online Dealer, and deeply moved Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba.com, and the broad chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.—Terry Gou.
 
 
[Helping both Oneself and Others; Disabled Body in a Sound Mind]
       Actually, Yun-Cheng already had a heart of helping other since he was a child. He would not hesitate to donate his money to help those who suffered a flood, even when he had less than a dollar left. After he opened his online shop, therefore, he started to provide more help to his disabled friends. He said, “I also can help people; we, indeed, suffered, but there are people who suffered even more than us!”Yun-Cheng, who sat on a wheelchair, did not find himself in need of others' pity.
      His biggest wish is to establish “The Foundation of Muscular Dystrophy”, to help those who also has muscular dystrophy to learn in school, to communicate with the world through internet, and to appreciate the value of their own lives. His story triggered a huge echo in China, he was awarded “Light—Chinese Youth of the Year 2003”as encouraging figures, and received the award on the same stage with Yang Li-Wei and Yao Ming. He also won the respect of Beckham. In particular, when Beckham was in Real Madrid, a club which had a lot of stars, Beckham lost the game against Zaragoza in King's Cup, and he admitted that when he “lost every glory”, “is in a difficult time”, and “is receiving too much annoyances”, he would desire “for tranquillity”, “to struggling free”, and “to inspire each other”, especially “to walk freely”. Beckham found the source of life and strength to overcome hardship and fatigue, and to appreciate the value of life in Yun-Cheng. This was the true reason Beckham sent Yun-Cheng his signed soccer uniform with his blessing to pay respect to Yun-Cheng.
      Success and fame did not stop Yun-Cheng; he is now using his last moveable finger, the middle finger of his right hand, to write his second book.