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In 2008, under the guidance of "Guoshi" Zhang Yimou, Beijing Bird's Nest presented a stunning Olympic opening ceremony, allowing the world to see the beauty of the East and the strength of China.
However, looking back at the entire opening ceremony, there is one person that Zhang Yimou is ashamed to mention, she is the former "Silk Road" dancer Liu Yan.
"You are my deepest guilt, and I will always have your place in my heart."
At that time, due to a mismatch in the rehearsal, liu Yan, a dancer who was flourishing, fell from a 3-meter-high float, was seriously injured and disabled, and sat in a wheelchair forever.
After waking up from the darkness, Liu Yan's Olympic solo dance was replaced by someone else, and her legs were unconscious.
However, after the initial regret and praise, why did the discordant voice of Liu Yan's "Present World Newspaper" appear?
Now that more than ten years have passed, how is Liu Yan, who is permanently disabled, doing now?
01
By the time Liu Yan's name became widely known, she was already in a wheelchair.
Although before that, she was already a rising star in the dance circle, but that was only in the dance circle.
It wasn't until an accident in the Olympic rehearsal that everyone learned about this talented but ill-fated young dancer.
Liu Yan, born in 1982, is a native of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.
Liu Yan's father is a judge and his mother is a doctor. With a well-off family, she has been pampered by her parents since she was a child.
In fact, Liu Yan was not called Liu Yan at the beginning, but "Liu Nan". But she was not in good health since she was a child, often with fevers, colds, and scarlet fever.
Grandparents who love their granddaughter heard that changing her name can make the child's body strong, so they named her "Liu Yan", hoping that her granddaughter can be as strong and powerful as a hard, erect stone.
It is also strange to say that after changing his name, Liu Yan's physical condition is much better.
At the age of three, his family sent Liu Yan to study art. She was exposed to fine art and violin, but in the end, she chose to make dance her lifelong career.
In 1991, 9-year-old Liu Yan studied under Bai Ying. Bai Ying saw that she was indeed talented, so she recommended her to go to Beiwu for professional study.
In September of the same year, Liu Yan was admitted to the Affiliated High School of Beijing Dance Academy with excellent results, and was sent to the Chinese Classical Dance Department of the Dance Academy to continue his studies six years later.
During her time at the school, she participated in the "Lotus Cup" dance competition and won the silver medal of the third "Lotus Cup" competition for her original dance "Rouge Buckle" (the dance "Rouge Buckle" is adapted from Li Bihua's novel of the same name, and Zhang Guorong and Mei Yanfang starred in the film version of "Rouge Buckle").
In the 2004 National Dance Competition, she once again won the Gold Award for Performance for "Rouge Buckle".
In 2006, Liu Yan, who emerged in the dance circle, was invited to the Spring Festival Gala to star in the dance "Three Friends of the Cold Year" with her idol, Teacher Yang Liping, in which she played the role of Hongmei.
In 2008, Liu Yan defeated a number of competitors and stood out from the hundred dancers to become the only solo dance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games - the A corner of "Silk Road".
According to this momentum, Liu Yan will surely become one of the top figures in the Chinese dance world.
However, an accident knocked Liu Yan down into the abyss.
02
It happened during the rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
On July 28, 2008, Liu Yan was in an intense rehearsal at the Bird's Nest.
Liu Yan attaches great importance to this performance, because through this opportunity, she will show her beautiful dance in front of people all over the world.
The dance "Silk Road" has very high requirements for the basic skills of the actors, and at the same time, it also needs the full cooperation of everyone -
Liu Yan plays the "flying goddess" of Dunhuang, who needs to wield a three-meter-long ribbon, dance on the "electronic tissue paper", and then leap from the "electronic tissue paper" to the float, and follow the float to complete the dance and parade.
During the rehearsal, all of Liu Yan's actions were completed in one go, clean and sharp.
However, just as she jumped from the "electronic tissue paper" to the float, an accident occurred.
Due to the mistake of the staff, the float started 1 second earlier.
It was the speed generated by this short 1 second that Made Liu Yan unable to stand firm on the float, and her body was planted backwards, and the "electronic tissue paper" behind her had quickly withdrawn.
In this way, Liu Yan fell directly from the 3-meter-high float.
In an instant, tens of thousands of people on the scene stopped, stunned by this unexpected scene.
The music was no longer played, the dance was not rehearsed, and the staff at the scene quickly called an ambulance to take Liu Yan to the hospital.
In the chaos, Liu Yan woke up from the darkness. Liu Yan, who did not know what to face next, his first thought was to find a choreographer:
"Tomorrow or at 5 p.m. to the Bird's Nest for rehearsal?"
03
When Liu Yan's parents rushed to the hospital, what they saw was their daughter lying on a snow-white bed.
The doctor told them heavily that Liu Yan's twelfth thoracic vertebrae were seriously misaligned and his nerves were seriously damaged. In other words, Liu Yan will face high paraplegia in the second half of his life.
Although Liu Yan in the hospital bed did not know this result, she woke up and felt something was wrong.
The legs, which were originally light, were now suffering from a severe burning sensation. In addition to the pain, Liu Yan tried to move his legs but found that it was not possible.
Looking at his parents who cried and swollen their eyes, Liu Yan had a bad thought in his heart for an instant. She wept silently, unwilling to accept this cruel result.
After the accident, director Zhang Yimou visited Liu Yan's hospital many times and comforted her.
But in the end, the A corner that originally belonged to Liu Yan was still topped by the B corner Yin Shuo.
On August 8, 2008, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games was officially held.
In this grand and magnificent opening ceremony, Hangzhou girl Yin Shuo, as the new "flying goddess", completed the "Silk Road" very beautifully.
And Liu Yan, who should have been in the limelight, could only spend the cold night in the hospital.
However, just when many people thought that Liu Yan would be decadent and depressed, Liu Yan's next approach surprised everyone.
During the six months of hospitalization, Liu Yan, who woke up, began to do rehabilitation like a chicken blood.
Like a drowning man clutching at a life-saving straw, she believed she could recover and walk out of the hospital with her legs.
She would often ask her mother, who was a doctor:
"Mom, do you think I can do miracles?"
Whenever this happens, mom always tells her encouragement:
"Yes, you can!"
But after saying that, my mother turned her head and silently wiped away her tears. As a professional doctor, she understands that Liu Yan's spinal cord injury of this degree is impossible to stand up again.
But so what? She could not say such a thing to her daughter at all, and could only hold back tears and accompany her daughter to continue her recovery.
After insisting on this for half a year, Liu Yan gradually understood that he could no longer stand up.
But pride like her, even in this case, does not want to become decadent and sloppy.
She began to get used to being in a wheelchair, and used a specific wheelchair to "nail" herself to the wheelchair. Although this method will make her feel tired and painful, it can avoid physical decline and keep her upper body straight and mental.
After learning to operate a wheelchair skillfully, Liu Yan also strives to make himself "independent". What you can take yourself will never trouble others, and you can fight for a person to go where you can go.
Sometimes in an interview or conversation, her teacup runs out of water, and she will subconsciously refuse to be helped:
"I'll do it myself!" I'll do it myself! ”
In addition to remaining clean in appearance and independent in spirit, Liu Yan has not given up on his favorite dance.
In 2009, Liu Yan made an official comeback and appeared on the stage again.
She won the "Best Performing Actress in Dance of the Year in China" award presented to her by director Zhang Yimou and singer Song Zuying, and also attended various charity activities to raise funds for children who love dance.
Although she could not continue dancing, she could use her professional dance skills to serve as a judge in various competitions.
Without his legs, Liu Yan began to study the dance movements of his hands.
She has conducted meticulous research on chinese deaf sign language, pear garden hand movements and Buddhist handprints, so as to have a deeper and more thorough understanding of classical Chinese dance.
In 2014, she also became a teacher at the Beijing Dance Academy, offering a dance hand movement course that led young dancers to a new direction of research.
04
In addition to dance, Liu Yan's love life has also attracted the attention of many people.
But the love life not only did not add points to Liu Yan, but once let her reputation down to the trough.
In 2019, Guan Tong, a famous host of CCTV, reported Lang Kun, the director of the Spring Festival Gala, in real name. Of course, this matter was finally settled, but Lang Kun's private life was pulled out, and his relationship with Liu Yan received a lot of attention.
Some people say that Liu Yan and Lang Kun are boyfriend and girlfriend, and Liu Yan's Spring Festival Gala and the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games are what Lang Kun fought for.
However, after Liu Yan's accident, Lang Kun did not acknowledge the relationship between the two, but told the media:
"It's just a normal friendship."
And despite the rumors from the outside world, Liu Yan has never responded.
Now that more than a decade has passed since that accident, Liu Yan has always concentrated on her dance career.
Although suffering is not worthy of being praised, I have to admit that few people like Liu Yan can stand up firmly after encountering huge accidents and pains, and always be active in the field they love.
This spirit of hers is still worth learning and learning from.
When suffering comes, although it torments our spirit and body, it also strengthens the resilience of life.
I hope that everyone in life can face it strongly when they encounter suffering, perceive life in suffering, and sharpen themselves in setbacks.