In 2008, Liao Zhi lost her daughter, marriage and legs in the earthquake. Later, she was concerned by the public with her tenacious perseverance, and "Wenchuan amputee dance teacher" became the label of Liao Zhi.
Today, thirteen years have passed since the earthquake. In the early winter of 2021, we walked into Liao Zhi's current life and saw her accept her mutilated body, put down her anger in front of her mother, and move on with love for her daughter lost in the earthquake. Today, Liao Zhi embraces his new life with a brave and beautiful attitude.
Tencent News's "Chinese Day" column and Kuaishou We Studio jointly planned and produced a series of women's theme documentaries "The Great Mother and Daughter", the third episode is the story of Liao Zhi getting more essential love from his mother and daughter.
One weekend, Liao Zhi planned to shoot a short video, and she invited the sisters to "tie the field" and do what the hot girls would do together. These sisters and she both share a common identity, both are disabled.
But they seem so happy in the rhythm of the music, have control over the prosthesis, and still have a good way of walking on the stage. Liao Zhi picked up a crutch and made a gun gesture, naughty and powerful. The sisters followed her. Liao Zhiliu has long wavy curly hair, wears earrings and chains, and has a bright smile on her face.
On weekends, Liao Zhi danced outdoors with the Prosthetic Sisters.
Before shooting a short video, Liao Zhi helped a friend put on makeup. She talked about her experience of makeup, before adapting to the prosthesis and completing the acceptance of the body, Liao Zhi had been constantly accepting her pursuit of beauty in the long years of her youth.
Originally it was about appearance. She has loved beauty since she was a child. When she was in junior high school, Liao Zhi put a double eyelid on herself for the first time, and a female classmate saw it and said that she was "very demon", which made her always doubt herself. At the time, she saw that the aunts of her neighbors refused to admit that they were beautiful even after they dressed up, "refusing to admit that they were pursuing this thing." But by then she already had the heart to fight. She didn't want to live in the scrutiny of other people's eyes.
She recognizes her pursuit of beautiful things, "I just like beautiful things very simply, I want to try." She wants to be able to follow her inner life.
Despite the prosthesis, Liao Zhi danced very contagiously.
Resistance is the key word in Liao Zhi's life.
Once upon a time she had to fight against the eyes of others, and after losing her legs, she had to fight against the great inconvenience and pain of her body. It was difficult at first, and Liao Zhi once described moving these two 20-pound prosthetic limbs as if he were "walking on his knees."
Now, she's adapted. She went to the park and was watched and asked by curious children, and she would say, because I am a robot. She was still dancing on the Great Wall, and to the camera, she said, I may have lived too romantically, and my legs had wandered to Mars.
In front of a large mirror, Liao Zhi looked at her newly dressed prosthetic, "If I wear this to pick up my daughter today, her classmates will think that this is something, this is quite cool." "Our daughter is very proud of you, she knows that only her mother's legs are like this," Said Mr. Liao's husband, Wang Qifan, a prosthetic engineer.
Liao Zhi wants the prosthesis to be beautiful, to have rhinestones, it is best to shine.
The bigger, more insidious obstacle she faced in the long years after the earthquake was the enormous emotional trauma she had suffered from the loss of her daughter in the earthquake.
Six months pregnant, she discovered that her ex-husband was cheating. She said she was divorced, but the next night she was weak. "I'm worried about how I'm going to feed this child." However, at the moment of the birth of the child, a strong sense of responsibility of "you feel that you are a mother" enveloped her, and she became very calm.
Seven or eight days after giving birth to the child, before the caesarean section wound was completely healed, she went out to buy all the things she needed, began to plan her career arrangements, she had to go back to dance school to take the teacher's certificate, she wanted to open a branch, she had to be the principal herself. A special spirit supports her to have an independent life and take good care of her daughter when she grows up.
On May 12, 2008, Liao Zhi's ten-month-old daughter was killed in an earthquake. All dreams shattered.
Every time I change my prosthesis, it's like saying goodbye to the past.
For a long time after the earthquake, Liao Zhi did not want to be with any children.
On Children's Day in 2008, she saw a little friend performing in the hospital, and she remembered that the sun was particularly heavy that day, she sat under the stage and applauded, and suddenly, she found her tears snapping and falling on her legs. "I think it's because I miss her a lot, and she missed a lot." Later, a school invited Liao Zhi to encourage some amputee children. She refused two or three times, "I think you can do whatever you want me to do, but I'm not ready to stay with a lot of kids." "The other person asked her, if it was your own child, he needs help now, and you can help him, will you help him?" That sense of responsibility has re-emerged. She didn't want to go on running away any longer, so she went anyway.
She did magic for the little friend that day, but she was so nervous that the magic failed. The children rushed to the podium and hugged her, her tears flowing, "I'm not here to ask for this warmth they give me, I can do something for them, I can teach them to dance and sing, poetry recitation." ”
Liao Zhi insists on putting on makeup every day to maintain a spirit and beautiful self.
Later, she went to volunteer teaching for a year, staying with children from different schools. She found that the children were very concerned about their physical disability, but Liao Zhi told them that the matter was not so terrible, not so bad. Later, the children's hands hiding in the sleeves were extended, and the prosthetic limbs hidden in the legs of the pants were also exposed, "I felt like I saw them grow up", and she herself was slowly healed.
Later, one day, Liao Zhi dreamed of his daughter again. Unlike previous dreams, this time, the daughter is 20 years old. "She seemed to tell me in a dream that she was fine."
Before that, Liao Zhi felt that he would not want children again, "I can't protect my children well, I don't seem to have self-confidence, children are too fragile in their lives." But after that dream, Liao Zhi felt encouraged to take a new step, "I don't think I'm so bad, I can also be a good mother." 」 ”
She began to muster up the courage to embrace her new life.
Liao Zhi insisted on exercising and managed his figure very disciplinedly.
In 2014, Liao Zhi entered a married life again, and she and Wang Qifan, a prosthetic engineer, began to fall in love in 2013 and married a year later.
Now, Liao Zhi is a mother of two children. From childhood to adulthood, Liao Zhi was very eager to meet an ideal lover and to have his own home. In her imagination at that time, there must be sunshine in the house, sunny and warm, not full of quarrels and haze.
Liao Zhi takes good care of her daughter, but also encourages her to bravely try new things.
This is related to Liao Zhi's growing environment. As a child, Liao Zhi was very insecure, and she grew up in a family where her parents often quarreled and fought. She had a "feeling of walking in fear" and didn't know which day her parents would be separated.
In the rebellious period of adolescence, she began to fall in love, trying to find out who would be her partner. Who will save me? She had such a voice in her heart. But she was frustrated in her relationship, and the marriage before the earthquake ended with the other's cheating, "as if my world didn't fit my ideals."
But she began to be able to understand why her mother had been unhappy.
The mother is a delicate and sensitive person who throws herself into her husband, but never gets the response she wants. "I know what I want as a woman... There will be all the same experiences and be able to empathize."
Liao Zhi's mother does not go out much now, and often reads some philosophical books to meditate on herself.
Her mother's unhappiness once made her unhappy. Mother felt that life had no hope and no future. Unconsciously, she was angry in front of her daughter, because she felt that she was her own child, as she should be, and she did not take into account her daughter's feelings. After being angry, Liao Zhi accumulated anger in his heart.
When Liao Zhi was young, her mother would tell her, "It's not interesting to live." Those negative and dark words once brought her an infinite sense of despair. As a young child, she did not know how to respond, and could only bear it, internalizing it as part of herself. This anger has always weighed on Liao Zhi's life.
But now, as a grown woman, as a wife and mother, she can understand everything that happened to her mother from the perspective of a mother, "From a woman's point of view I can understand you, I want you to be happy." Liao Zhi also decided to let go of his inner anger.
Liao Zhi put on her mother's earrings and red lips, and prepared to take her out shopping.
For many years, Liao Zhi would forget that she was the daughter of her mother. But Liao Zhi remembers that on the day he gave birth to his daughter, his mother stood on top of his head. She was in a hospital bed, and after taking the anesthetic, she felt that the woman standing there, "She's actually my mother."
In Chongqing, they finally had an open conversation. The mother quickly burst into tears, and she mentioned the harm she had done to Liao Zhi. But Liao Zhi also knew her mother's love for her. My mother had run away from home before, found a job, and could start a new life, but finally went home, for Liao Zhi, "it was a big love."
Liao Zhi always remembered that when he was a child, he often heard his mother say that it is not good for people to have emotions, because having emotions will be painful. But now she feels that people can be happy together, people still have to have emotions, they have to have relationships, "people have emotions to have love, the world has hope." "It's important that I know you really love me". A light rail passed by, and the two wept silently, their hearts getting closer.
Liao Zhihe's current husband's first child was born in September 2016. Initially, Wang Qifan understood her fear of not having children, thinking that they could adopt a child together. However, after a year of marriage, Liao Zhi felt that Wang Qifan would be a good father, and she wanted to have a child of their own, and she gradually crossed the inner barrier.
The family went to the ice skating rink to play. Her daughter was in the skating rink, liao zhi and her younger son were next to her, but she had been encouraging her daughter, "My sister is so brave, she didn't cry when she fell." When it was over, she took her daughter in her arms, "Mom thinks you're amazing, very proud of you, and did something that my mother wouldn't dare to do," and asked her which one was particularly fulfilling.
Her daughter fell in pain at the ice rink, and Liao Zhi took her in his arms and encouraged her.
Now, she would say to her two children, "You have a sister." Liao Zhi is reluctant to avoid this topic, and she hopes to let the children know that feelings are precious.
Outside the family, Liao Zhi has her own career, she opened a rehabilitation studio for amputees, and also hopes to create a business platform for women to grow in the future. However, she has always been with her daughter.
With the love after releasing her feelings with her mother, she also wants to give her daughter the meticulous care and encouragement that she herself has not been able to get from her mother. She hopes that her daughter can become a brave person, a person who dares to continue to explore on the road of life.
Liao Zhi always bravely and truthfully showed her smile and charm.
With my daughter, "the form of life has become boring, but the deeper parts of the heart have become richer, and it is far beyond the richness of my past to engage in an activity and participate in this and that thing." ”
"This abundance is called, I begin to get closer to the essence of love."
Search for "Liao Zhi" on Tencent News, welcome to follow Liao Zhi's personal account to learn more about her.
Issue 3985
Written | Lee Ho
Video | Liu Xiaojing
Edit | Jiaqi sings
Produced by | Tencent News Kuaishou