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Shanghai wheelchair dancers find their groove as China steps up programmes for people with disabilities
- In China, some local governments are raising the number of fitness programmes available to the disabled, as well as investing in facilities and instructors
- Dancer born without hearing hopes more Chinese can recognise the ‘fighting spirit’ required of disabled people – rather than viewing them as an inconvenience
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When she lost a leg to cancer at the age of 10, Shao Yue never imagined she could learn to dance.
Now, she is a national wheelchair-dancing champion who hopes her story can help change perceptions of people with disabilities in China.
“People think we face a lot of difficulty going out … and need to rely entirely on others to survive,” said the 34-year-old winner of several competitions.
“But we actually don’t need that much help. And we don’t need everyone to look at us as outsiders,” adds Shao, a mother who drives her daughter to school each day.
Despite gradually modernising attitudes in China, people with disabilities say they are still treated as outsiders.
Shao trains in Shanghai with a dance troupe composed of people with hearing or visual impairments, as well as dancers who use wheelchairs.
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