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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 17th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2014> Tseng Hsuan-Yu—Multi-Handicapped Musician
 [Music Rings the Bells of Hope for the Disabled]

I will overcome obstacles and rise above challenges, and make my life worth living.
—Tseng Hsuan-Yu
 
A Song of Life
Tseng Hsuan-Yu, a student at Huei Ming School, has a dream for music. He has the sort of candor that is seen in most young people, and a quite yet firm personality. His devotion to music allows him to transcend barriers and perform the song of his life. 
 
To those who do not know about Hsuan-Yu’s conditions—he is born with visual, hearing, and language impairment—it would appear as if he were born with extraordinary musical talent. Little do they know that it was through hard work and much practice that led him to shine onstage.
 
Illuminating the world with music
As the lead performer of the Huei Ming band, Tseng gives charity concerts on a regular basis. The band goes to hospitals, orphanages, schools to tell their moving story through music, bringing hope and inspiration to others. Multiple disabilities do not in any way hinder Tseng’s enthusiasm in reaching out and sharing the light that shines within him. He is a fitting awardee of the Chou Ta-Kuan Foundation’s 17th Annual Global Love of Life Award.
 
Love transcends boundaries
Tseng and his twin brother were born in Taichung in 1994. Both of them were premature infants with low birth weight. Unfortunately, his brother did not survive while they struggled to live in a neonatal intensive care unit.
 
Tseng often forgot to breathe, filling his parents with fear as they fought against the will to give up on their baby. Yet his will to live was strong, and he survived.
 
Yet fate was not kind. He was diagnosed with visual and hearing impairment, chewing and swallowing problem, speech and language impairment, balance disorders, developmental delay, learning disability, and autism.
 
When he was still a child, Tseng’s parents visited one hospital after another, seeking advice from authoritative doctors regarding treatment and surgery.
 
Yet that hope faded. No surgeon dared to operate on a baby like Tseng. One doctor went so far as to say, “Medical literature indicates that he has a slim chance of success in case of surgery. However, if you are THAT desperate . . . .” From this point on, Tseng’s parents gave up on Western medicine, and turned to other forms of treatment, including food therapy, medication, Chinese massage (Tuina), electrotherapy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and alternative naturopathic medicine.
 
Holding on to Hope
Due to innate problems, Tseng learns to experience the world in limited ways. He tended to use the sense of touch to make himself feel safe. While other children of his age loved to touch flurry animals, Tseng was afraid to touch them. Due to hearing impairment, he needed hearing aids to help him reinforce his auditory memory. Lacking the sense of sight, he could only connect with the world through sounds and voices.
 
It was a slow and arduous process for him to understand the world as we know it. But his parents are resourceful, always looking for ways to facilitate his progress. Tseng underwent visual, hearing and speech training, and attended cognitive training held by institutes to overcome challenges. He also took equestrian and swimming classes to strengthen his body. Despite obstacles along the way, his parents are there to support him every step of the way.
 
The Bumpy Road to Music Learning
At the age of six, Tseng enrolled in Huei Ming Pre-school and started to foster relationship with people other than his parents. At seven, he attended the class for the blind, the deaf, and the mute. Teachers there use every possible way to communicate and instruct students. Tseng began to learn to eat properly, wear clothes, and go to the bathroom.
 
It was difficult for students with different disabilities to communicate among themselves. Fingerspelling was used, and Tseng used what little hearing ability he had to facilitate understanding. Flash cards were employed as wel.
 
At the age of ten, Tseng’s mother accompanied her son to a class for the visually impaired to learn braille, and he started to interact more with classmates.
 
A simple sentence in the eyes of a child with no disability would require much more time and effort for Tseng to learn. With the help of the recording machine (quite a few broke after frequent and extended use), Tseng studied long and hard.
 
Though born with sensory disabilities, Tseng was not afraid to participate in physical activities. He joined the cheerleading competition for the mentally challenged for four times, receiving numerous group and individual awards. Since 2011, he represented the school to attend the Cross-Strait, Four-Region Dragon Boat Invitational Race as the boatman for three consecutive years. 
 
Embracing music
Tseng began playing the piano at nine. At 14, he started playing the accordion. He relied on the sense of touch to learn these musical instruments. Teachers would demonstrate the correct musical notes by tapping on the back of his hand, and ask him to respond to the musical expression of dynamics by using his own body. 
 
Difficult as it was, he had never given up on any piece. The recording machine had played from seven in the morning till the time he went to sleep. It took two or three recording machines to record a course. A three-minute musical piece took him months before he could learn it and perform it onstage.
 
Music Teaches Invaluable Lessons
Hsuan-Yu is now a performer with lots of experience. He has given over 153 charity concerts in Taiwan, Kinman, and Matsu playing the accordion either in a group or as an individual. At the age of eighteen, he attended a Taiwan-Japan goodwill concert for people with disabilities. Currently, he is busy preparing for the International Piano Festival by People with Disabilities to fulfill his dream of participating in an international competition.
 
Music is Tseng’s healing fountain, an oasis in a vast dessert. Through music, he discovers happiness, his hopes and dreams. His innate disabilities may have hindered his development in the beginning, but he was in turn propelled to embrace his potentials and create a life of music of his own. His relentless endeavors earned him the honor of 2012 President's Education Award. Music has proven to be life-changing for Tseng, and he has acted unselfishly in sharing his joy to everyone who has taught him to love.