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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 12th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2009> A Painter with the Brush in Mouth─Zhang Yun-Peng
Colour-Painting with Mouth ‧ Sale for Charity
      Zhang Yun-Peng, who started to suffer muscular dystrophy since three, already found walking a difficult task at six. He could not walk any more at nine, and his back started to bend since fifteen; at seventeen, he was unable to eat by himself. He could not stretch his fingers at nineteen, and at his twenty, he found painting with hands already difficult. So he started to use his mouth to hold brushes to paint at twenty-three; but even his mouth became powerless at twenty-four. At twenty-five, strength of his neck slipped away. At the moment all his muscles suffered analosis, and his skeleton are all deformed. His weight is less than thirty kilogram. He cannot move except his head, but he did not give up his dream to go exhibition; he kept painting with a brush in his mouth. Finally, in May of 2002 he held his first exhibition, and received magnificent responses. Each painting was finished by Yun-Peng with a brush in his mouth. In order to help more disadvantaged friend, he started to sell his works online for charity, hoping to provide more resources and aids to them.
 
 
[The onset of muscular dystrophy; incurable by any medicine, untreatable by any doctor]
      Zhang Yun-Peng was born in Heilongjiang in 1977. He is now a professional painter. His works are on sale for charity in the online shop of his younger brother, Chang Yun-Cheng. At three, he often fell down while walking, and could not walk after a short distance. His parent worried about him and his father carried him on his back to counsel doctors from hospitals in Harbin , Shenyang , Shandong , Tianjin , and Beijing , etc. He, at last, received a definite diagnosis of muscular dystrophy, which is incurable.
 
 
[Eight Thousand Days without Cloud and Blue Sky]
      Yun-Peng could only sit on the ground to play when he was a child. Often there were naughty children putting mud into his clothes from the collar. They circled around him, and he could only defend the mud came from his front, while those from his back could easily went into his clothes. He defended himself with his hands, and kept looking around to stay alert. Yun-Peng was already like a weak lamb.
      Later, his condition worsened. He could no longer stretch his hand, and he could not raise his arms to hold a brick; he could not stretch his waist, his legs, or his foot toes.
      Currently, besides holding a brush in mouth to practice calligraphy and painting, Yun-Peng can do nothing else on his own. Whenever there was a clear sky and bright sunlight, he would say with desire, “The weather outside is so good, if only I could take a walk outside.”
      By now, it has been almost 8000 days since the last time Yun-Peng walk outside his house! He is so yearn to see the grasses, trees, mountains, and the blue sky with white cloud outside, and to go sunbath and be blown by the wind.
 
 
[The Days of Painting Practice with a Brush in Mouth]
      Perhaps 1995 was the peak of Yun-Peng 's painting career. However, as time goes by, his hands became more and more powerless; eventually, his hands could no longer hold a brush. Although he could not paint the beautiful scenes in his mind, he did not give up his dream!
      He said, “My hands are powerless now, but I still have my mouth! Besides, my mouth is powerful; I can hold a brush in my mouth and produce paintings that are even better than those finished by my hands!” He then decided to paint with the brush held in his mouth.
      At that time, his drawing board was a ragged plastic board about 30 cm 2 large. Yun-Peng found it difficult to hold a brush in his mouth at first: the brush was always out of control, and he was angry about it. He looked at the spoiled work and bit the brush harshly, and made a squawky noise. His shoulders rub against a chest and bled while he painted.
      To overcome this obstacle, he trained himself to hold a brush with his mouth. He held a brush drawing in the air even when he was not painting. After some time, he became more capable to hold a brush in his mouth and could paint with precision.
      The first work finished with the brush in his mouth is “The Camel”. Although Yun-Peng was merely looking at the work quietly, one could see the proud and excitement in his heart through his eyes and his look: even the inability to hold a brush in his hand did not hinder his determination to pursue his dream. He did not give himself up to obstacles, and stood up from pain and disappointment.
      Tears finally fell from Yun-Peng's eyes……
      From then on, his life had a new starting point! This point, in a sense, already transcended his practice of painting itself; it was a brilliant turn of his life!
 
 
[Be Happy Everyday; Realizing the Dream of Exhibition]
      Although Yun-Peng's lips became powerless gradually, and he had to block the food with his teeth inside his mouth before his second brother took out the chopsticks, he was very optimistic, “Time passes whether you are sad or happy, so why do not you be happy? Besides, we have such a good family, and I have still my dream of becoming a painter!” Precisely because he was so optimistic and so insistence on his dream that although his difficulties of painting were beyond imagination, he could still held a brush firmly in his mouth and achieved his target in the only way available to him stroke by stroke. Eventually, under the encouragements and helps from the students in Heilongjiang Democratic League University, Yun-Peng's work went on exhibition in the university. When Yun-Peng read the photos information of the exhibition, he was too excited and could not speak. In his eyes there were excitement, surprise, and light.
      Later, Yun-Peng said that when his second brother read for him his letters from students in the university, he was very surprised—for many students, as it turned out, he was their amazing admiration; and he was quite proud of it. Although he did not speak in that twenty minutes, he thought a lot, “After more than twenty year, after so many difficulties, I did not waste my life. I finally have my reward.” At that night, he could not fall asleep. He looked at the dark sky outside and felt the peace around him, he then considered himself quite happy. He did not waste his effort, and let his family saw hopes. With such a day, his life is worthy. From then on, he continued to exhibit his works in different places, and received magnificent responses.
      Nowadays Yun-Peng and his younger brother Yun-Cheng together run an online shop to sell his paintings and books, to earn their own living. They also donate their incomes to help others. Yun-Peng, with such happiness, continues to weave his colorful dreams of drawing better paintings and holding bigger exhibitions. He is also pursuing his dream of releasing a song album.