"The beauty of flaws, as the name suggests, means that even if jade has spots, it is still beautiful." The same goes for our children. ”
Even though it is already winter, the sunshine in Guangzhou is still warm, and on the stage of the Grandview Theatre, Li Chengting and other children dance happily. They are mentally handicapped. With their specific disabilities such as autism, Down syndrome, and intellectual disability, they have brought different degrees of difficulties to their learning and social ways, but this does not prevent them from participating in the 24th "Beauty of Flaws" Special Children Art Festival not long ago.
In the past long years, the life trajectories of Li Chengting and other Children in Guangzhou and more than 80 million disabled friends across the country have occasionally overlapped or differed. Having experienced despair, I once felt that the stage of society had long abandoned myself, but because of chance, I saw hope again. In a city of dreams, inclusion and equality, they want to blossom their dreams in public eye.
For many families with special children, the "beauty of flaws" is one of the stages to promote the integration of the disabled.
At the 24th "Beauty of Flaws" Special Children Art Festival, more than 300 special children from 18 special education institutions in 12 cities in Guangdong Province gathered in Guangzhou to show the city the beauty they had worked hard to explore. Nearly 400 children also created their own works of art, participated in the selection, and used imaginative imagination, unique perspectives, and unfettered thinking to convey beauty through online and offline multi-platform methods.
"From the first year to the present, we have always hoped to create an equal and inclusive dream platform for special needs groups. From one city to multiple cities, it is inseparable from the participation of many parties in society. The person in charge of the activity revealed, "The integration of disabled groups into society is a long systematic project, and the 'beauty of flaws' should be a beginning, not a successful end." ”
▍ Tidbits: Behind the stage, is a long breakout process
Not long ago, the "Beauty of Flaws" Special Children's Art Festival Guangdong Provincial Literary and Art Festival was held at the Grandview Theatre. In addition to chorus, dance, instrumental performance, recitation, etc., there are also bel canto solos, song and dance dramas, each program has its own characteristics. And Li Chengting, the dance of this girl who has accompanied Down syndrome for 18 years in her life, is impressive.
When Li Chengting danced on the stage, few people knew that behind the graceful dance was a decade of hard work.
When the age of 18 was approaching, Li Chengting promised her dream: she wanted to become a dance teacher. But people don't look at "Tang Baby" like her. In the past 10 years, due to chromosomal abnormalities, Li Chengting, who was diagnosed with Down syndrome, had insufficient athletic ability and weak learning ability, even if she just walked normally, she had learned for 3 years. Families have suffered from prejudice for a long time — some have advised them to give up their children; others have carefully drawn a line with them.
But it is also these 10 years that they have experienced many warm moments.
At the age of 4, in order to find a suitable kindergarten for Li Chengting, who had just learned to walk for a long time, the couple found special kindergartens in various districts of the city through "114", and finally found a kindergarten for special children in Qianlutou Street, Yuexiu District; accidentally found that Li Chengting liked to dance, did not make a sound on weekdays, danced, the whole person was full of vitality, and they encouraged the children to participate in the first Flower City Sweet Ambassador Audition in March 2009, and for the first time they appeared on the stage of performance. At the age of 6, he stepped onto the stage of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Asian Paralympic Games in Guangzhou.
Since then, there are still many people who think that Li Chengting's dance dream is a fantasy, but the parents have once again searched for one ordinary institution after another, and after popular science and lobbying, they have finally found a dance training institution that recognizes their children.
As a result, Li Chengting began to try the Chinese dance exam at the age of 9, and has been tested for nine levels so far. Due to the weak balance, an ordinary action often takes a month or two or even longer to do, and it takes ten times and a hundred times more effort for difficult technical movements. One volunteer said that the reason is simple, the taciturn Chengting finds her own vitality on the stage, and she can surprise the people around her with overflowing expression and appeal again and again.
Li Chengting's father said: "She insists on learning dance with healthy children, and she can perform together, and the performance at the end of each year has brought us the greatest touch." She is naturally not the best, but in the dance class, she is not the worst, which proves that she can also have her own value? ”
Guan Xiaolei, executive deputy director of the Guangzhou Children's Palace, said that the children showed themselves on the stage and touched the audience with their seriousness and efforts, and everyone could see the beauty from it and the wisdom that art brought to everyone.
For many children, the stage is to go out of the house, into the most important bridge of society, connecting the end of the society that is strange to each other. But it's too hard to build this bridge.
▍ Retrospective: Twenty-four years of persistence, finally achieved results
For a long time, "obstacles" are like the whole of life, and social barriers are seemingly insurmountable. Again and again, many parents doubt, deny, and then "dive." But at the "Beauty of Flaws" Special Children Art Festival, many parents of children still reminisce, because at that moment, the special needs children dressed in bright theatrical costumes and just set makeup walked out of the dressing room and excitedly faced the public with excitement and excitement.
At the scene of the "Flawed Beauty" Special Children's Art Festival Guangdong Provincial Literary and Art Festival, there is also a giant exhibition board that exhibits 12 special prize paintings and 18 first prize paintings from this year's Fine Arts Competition. Children from various prefectures and cities in Guangdong used paintbrushes and other painting materials to create vivid tigers, party history stories on paper, and heroic figures with exquisite portraits, which were exhibited to the public through large public places.
"We want to set the stage." The relevant person in charge of the "Beauty of Flaws" Special Children Art Festival recalled that this stage can be traced back to 24 years ago, when the Guangzhou Yangai Special Children Parents Club held a theme painting competition for the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Dragon at the Qizhi School in Dongshan District (now Yuexiu Qizhi School). At the end of the event, the children's paintings were printed into holiday cards to send blessings.
As the blessings were passed on, the authors of the paintings— some children with special needs — walked out of school and gained social attention. Intellectual, mobility, and mental disorders (Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, etc.) are no longer a reason to hinder them, and through the paintings, children show special existence and value of life. In the same year, the Guangzhou Children's Palace opened a free art course for special children, taught by professional teachers. A wonderful idea collided out, Guangzhou Yang Ai and Children's Palace came together in 2000, continuing the "Special Children's Painting Competition" at the same time, adding a literary and artistic performance link, with the rich content, the event was renamed "Special Children's Art Creation Exhibition and Performance Activity".
In 2005, the exhibition and performance activities added an art teacher exchange part, which was officially opened through the inscription of the famous artist Liao Bing brothers and elders "The Beauty of Flaws" - the Special Children Art Festival, which became a stage for special children, their teachers and families to show themselves.
In 2010, the Children's Palace planned a special children's art workshop for the "Beauty of Flaws" Art Festival to jointly help "The Beauty of Flaws". The relevant person in charge revealed that in the imagination, "flawed beauty" is a platform that can make special children realize their self-worth, which recognizes people's efforts for the cause of special children's education from multiple levels of children's own, family and education, and attracts the attention of all levels of society.
It is also in the past 24 years that the awards to the authors of the award-winning works have enabled special children to have self-confidence, so that parents and teachers can understand the talents of children; the awards for teachers engaged in special education are recognized for their work; art exhibitions, greeting cards, calendar distribution and charity sales, so that more ordinary people understand the shining points of special people; through large-scale square activities, attract social people to participate in social welfare activities, and the special children's art education cause has also continued to grow under the efforts of all parties.
▍ Outlook: Multi-party cooperation to explore the road of integration
It is worth noting that in the past 24 years, the number of participating units of "Flawed Beauty" has increased, and the joint promotion of activities has expanded from Guangzhou to the Pearl River Delta and then to the Greater Bay Area, benefiting more children.
Starting from 2020, the organizers of "Flawed Beauty" not only have the Children's Palace, Yang Ai, Guangdong Provincial Wisdom Association and Guangdong Provincial Fine Association, but also the Guangdong Lions Club to participate in it, in the same year, "Flawed Beauty" was included in the "Nanyue Disabled • Yihai You Love Volunteer Service Activities" series of activities, through the Guangdong Lions Club, and the "Nanyue Disabled • Yihai You Love" brand unified creation, effectively extend this stage, benefit more special children and families at the same time, in the whole society to form a strong advocacy, a number of enterprises, Groups have joined in support.
A project leader revealed that for the second consecutive year, "Flawed Beauty" has been expanded to the whole province, and the number of participating cities has increased year by year, on the other hand, the event has also added a number of highlights, which is creating a more integrated and barrier-free urban stage.
Among them, in 2021, the "Beauty of Flaws" Special Children's Art Festival held an audio painting exhibition for the first time, selecting the works of special needs students from the Special Artists' Studio of Guangzhou Children's Palace and the Bus Academy, and the volunteers of the "Heart Listening And Feeling Shadow" Oral Video Service of Guangdong Provincial Zhongshan Library extended the flat paintings through words and sounds. Through oral images, visually impaired friends also have the opportunity to "listen" to the painting together, and the public can also break the tradition and feel the story and meaning behind each painting through multi-dimensional vision and hearing.
In terms of social interaction, the Guangzhou Children's Palace and the Guangzhou Municipal National Archives jointly held two sessions of the "Hand in Hand • Into the Archives" special children's integration study activities, special children and parents watched the archival video short film "Yangcheng Memory" and "Lantai War "Epidemic" Record" record, visited the "Archives • Guangzhou" exhibition, from the historical city museum to the living history museum, from the map imprint hall to the time tunnel, in a precious archive to explore the development of Guangzhou's millennium development and urban cultural spirit. Grandview Polar Aquarium is also open for free on the day of the show.
In the "Beauty of Flaws" in 2021, different "hand in hand" activities allow special children to see more diversified Guangzhou, and also build a bridge for interpersonal communication for special children and expand interpersonal skills. In order to promote social integration, it also continues the tradition of activities in 2020, setting up adult oath-taking activities, so that every young person with mental disabilities can not only show the beauty of art, but also enter the society and show the responsibility of youth with more able-bodied people. Many volunteers were impressed by the fact that 10 representatives of youth with special needs (special education needs) attended the 2021 Guangzhou Adult Oath Ceremony with nearly 100,000 18-year-olds from the city.
At the "Coming of Age Ceremony", Lim Song Yin, a representative of special needs youth, represented the voice of most special needs youth and their parents on her desire for employment in adulthood. As young people with special needs reach adulthood, they are also actively learning to assume corresponding social obligations and responsibilities. Lin Songyin said: "I hope that I can find a suitable job in society, contribute a little of my own modest efforts, and reduce the burden on my family and society." This sentence has touched many parents.
"The beauty of flawed jade, flawed is still beautiful." Adult oath-taking ceremonies, art exhibitions, and literary and art performances are actually a ceremony, proving that obstacles are not the whole of life, everyone can become a member of society, create value, and what we have to do is to set up a stage to show value. The person in charge of the project said that for 24 years, the "Flawed Beauty" Special Children Art Festival has been committed to providing a platform for special children to show themselves, and more and more special children show their artistic talents on the stage of "Flawed Beauty", integrate into society, let the public more fully understand and understand special children, and feel the beauty of their growth, "But we also see that this stage is not big enough now, it is not enough to support each child to show their own value to everyone around the society, but the beauty of flaws shows a channel. And we believe that when many parties come together, this hope will become clearer and clearer."
Text/Guangzhou Daily, Xinhuacheng Reporter: Jia Zheng, Lin Lin, Su Zan Correspondents: Sui Renxuan, Zhang Xuexin
Photo / Guangzhou Daily , New Flower City Reporter: Mo Weinong Correspondent : Zhang Xuexin
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Ye Bijun