Preface
You don't learn sign language, don't be around us deaf and dumb.
This is something that his father explicitly forbade Tang Shuai not to do.
But Tang Shuai is now not only the first sign language lawyer in China, but also the most trusted lawyer for the deaf and mute, and even the vice minister of public security personally presented him with an award.
So what is the reason for Tang Shuai to live up to his father's wishes to learn sign language, and what motivates him to get to where he is today step by step?
Father's good intentions
Although Tang Shuai is a healthy and normal person, his parents are both deaf and mute.
In 1985, Tang Shuai was born in this deaf-mute family, and when his father learned that his child was a healthy child, his excitement was difficult to hide.
even gave the child the name Tang Shuai, hoping that his son could become a general.
However, Tang Shuai's father strictly forbade Tang Shuai to learn and understand sign language, because Tang Shuai's father felt that if Tang Shuai dealt with deaf and mute people, he would not be able to get out of this circle for the rest of his life.
Because his father felt that the deaf and mute were all living at the bottom of society, the lowest, the poorest, and the most inferior, Tang Shuai's parents were very opposed to Tang Shuai learning sign language.
I feel that Tang Shuai will only have the opportunity to get ahead in a society where people are able-bodied.
and sent Tang Shuai to his grandmother's house to raise, Tang Shuai's speech was also taught by his grandmother, at first Tang Shuai also obeyed his parents' wishes and did not learn sign language.
Until one day, my grandmother said to Tang Shuai: "If you don't learn sign language, your parents will be old and sick in the future, and you and him, you don't even have the ability to communicate with them, how can you take them to the doctor?
When Tang Shuai heard what his grandmother said, he suddenly realized that although what his parents told him was for his good, he couldn't be so selfish, regardless of his parents who had just begun to learn sign language.
But if he wants to learn sign language, his parents will definitely not teach him, so where should he go to learn it?
At this time, Tang Shuai suddenly thought that there were nearly 100 deaf and mute workers in the welfare factory where his parents worked, so Tang Shuai secretly went to the welfare factory to learn sign language from those uncles and aunts.
After a period of study, among the children of deaf and dumb uncles and aunts, Tang Shuai was the only one who learned the Chongqing sign language dialect.
But Tang Shuai did not stop learning, he would often go to Chongqing's Chaotianmen, Liberation Monument and other places during his break, looking for those deaf and mute tourists from other places who came to Chongqing to learn and communicate more sign language versions.
However, this kind of learning opportunity is rare, and he does not always have the opportunity to find a deaf and mute person from other places.
Subsequently, in order to subsidize the family in high school, Tang Shuai often did some small business and housekeeping to make money, at that time, Tang Shuai could get an income of 120-150 yuan every time he did housekeeping, once a week and four times a month.
However, when Tang Shuai was cleaning a family, the uncle would give him an extra 50 or 100 at the end of each month. This made Tang Shuai very moved in his heart, although the money was not much, it was also a lot of income for him.
It wasn't until the third year of high school that Tang Shuai decided to give up the college entrance examination and go out to work.
So Tang Shuai began to drift north alone, and in that kind of first-tier city, Tang Shuai was helpless and relied on his own efforts, and he earned 80,000 yuan in one year.
Tang Shuai, who made money, chose to go back home to prepare for the college entrance examination again, and when Tang Shuai returned home, he specially bought fruit to visit this uncle who was very good to him.
It was also this visit that made Tang Shuai decide his future employment direction.
When Tang Shuai came to this uncle's house at that time, he found that there was another guest at home, and this guest had a lot of background, he was the director of a public security bureau.
When the governor saw Tang Shuai's arrival, he asked who the uncle was?
And the uncle happily called him Tang Shuai over to introduce him to the director: "It is not easy for this kid to work and study, and he also has a specialty, sign language is very good." ”
But when the governor heard that Tang Shuai's sign language was particularly good, his eyes lit up and said: "Now the crime rate of deaf and mute people is very high, but our entire judicial circle is very short of such people who are really good at sign language." ”
So he said to Tang Shuai: "Come with me after you finish eating, it just so happens that our bureau recently cracked down on a criminal gang of deaf and mute people, you go and try it." ”
So Tang Shuai also went to the Public Security Bureau with the director with the attitude of giving it a try.
When Tang Shuai came to the interrogation room, he found that there were two interpreters there, and then the director said to Tang Shuai: "It's been a few hours and there is no result at all, and those deaf and mute people don't want to speak." ”
Then Tang Shuai said, "Let me try!"
After speaking, Tang Shuai went in and chatted with those deaf-mutes, and in just half an hour, he asked those deaf-mutes to confess their criminal acts.
After it was over, the director asked Tang Shuai very strangely: "How did you make them all loosen?"
But Tang Shuai said: "I didn't do anything, I just chatted with them." ”
The director asked, "Then why are they willing to talk to you but not to talk to them?"
At this time, Tang Shuai said: "Maybe I know the deaf and mute better!"
This was Tang Shuai's first contact with sign language interpreters in law, and it was this unexpected trip that made him decide on the direction of his future employment.
When Tang Shuai was leaving, the director suggested that he could go to the legal profession or study medicine in the future, because these two employment directions especially need sign language talents like him.
After determining his direction, Tang Shuai was successfully admitted to Southwest University of Political Science and Law through the self-study examination, and after going to university, Tang Shuai completed the four-year course in only two and a half years.
After that, he went to all parts of the country to learn the sign language dialects of various regions and the national Mandarin sign language.
The hoe is strong and helps the weak
In 2006, Tang Shuai obtained a sign language interpreter certificate and began to assist judicial authorities in Chongqing, Shaanxi and other regions to deal with criminal cases of deaf and mute.
In 2012, he successfully passed the judicial examination, successfully obtained the legal practice qualification certificate, and began to provide legal services for the deaf and mute.
During this period, although he was exposed to thousands of cases involving deaf and mutes, he did not find a single lawyer who could speak sign language, which is why he decided to become a lawyer.
However, in the process of assisting in the case, he found that some interpreters who did not understand natural sign language often misunderstood the meaning expressed by the deaf and mute.
According to Tang Shuai's recollection, the most impressive and typical case of translation error was when an old woman was introduced by a peer to find Tang Shuai and asked him to save her daughter.
It turned out that the grandmother's daughter was a deaf and mute person without a job, and her husband was suffering from severe uremia, which was very difficult, but the grandmother's daughter was inexplicably accused of theft.
At that time, Tang Shuai decided to help the old woman, so he came to the police station to understand the situation.
But when Tang Shuai saw the old lady's daughter, he said to Tang Shuai: "I didn't steal, Lawyer Tang, I was really wronged!"
And Tang Shuai has more than 30 years of contact and communication experience with deaf-mutes, whether it is from her expression and the sign language she drew when she spoke to Tang Shuai, as well as the state of the whole person.
Tang Shuai couldn't see that she was lying, but this also made Tang Shuai very strange, since she didn't lie, why was she still judged to be a theft?
After that, Tang Shuai came to the procuratorate with full questions and retrieved all her evidence. But after reading all the information, he finally found the problem.
In the transcript at that time, the translator asked the suspect: "Did you steal a mobile phone in a shopping mall on a certain day, month, and year?"
The transcript says, "Yes, I stole it!"
And I still remember clearly in the transcript that it was a golden mobile phone of a certain brand that was stolen.
But when Tang Shuai saw the video synchronization at that time, he found that the suspect replied: "I didn't steal, I didn't steal anything!" ”
But in the end, the result of the inquiry was: "I stole it!"
Why is that?
It turned out that this was actually a common problem with ordinary sign language, but because the suspect used dialect sign language, the translator used Mandarin sign language.
Don't underestimate the difference between these two sign languages, the difference between these two sign languages is actually very large, just like the difference between Mandarin and Hokkien as we speak.
Therefore, even the gestures of the strokes are very different, but the meanings expressed are very different.
And the detailed descriptions of the mobile phones of a certain brand in the transcripts are those unscrupulous sign language interpreters and suspects who are in a situation where they cannot communicate normally.
In order to keep their lucrative side hustle and give the case a piece of content, the translators could only guess to give the police an answer.
But this is not the most excessive, there have been many cases of this kind around Tang Shuai, who continue to use the shortcomings of the deaf and mute themselves to carry out extortion.
For example, in a case that happened next to Tang Shuai, Tang Shuai saw through the video playback that the sign language interpreter was negotiating terms with the suspect, and as long as the suspect's family could scrape together a sum of money, the interpreter could defend him.
As a result, because the money was not negotiated, the facts of the case told by the translator were completely different from the facts of the case expressed by the suspect.
And the purpose of those unscrupulous translators is to turn innocence into guilt, and misdemeanor into felony.
In the end, Tang Shuai overturned the erroneous evidence and correctly restored the facts of the case, and the unscrupulous sign language interpreter was also punished by law and disqualified as a sign language interpreter.
But it is precisely because of Tang Shuai's move that he violated the interests of some criminal gangs, and some people even offered a reward of 50 million for his life.
But through this case, it also transmitted a wrong concept to those who are deaf and mute.
That is, in judicial cases, the judiciary has no authority in the hearts of the deaf and mute, and the most authoritative is the sign language interpreter.
In their eyes, those translators can turn their hands and hands rain, so many deaf and mute people will do everything possible to please the local sign language interpreters.
Because a sign language interpreter can decide everything, a sign language interpreter is very important in every case of a deaf person, and all transcripts come from the mouth of the sign language interpreter.
For police officers who do not know sign language, they can only rely on the important content provided by sign language interpreters to make judgments.
Therefore, in the case of the deaf and mute, it is not the prosecutor, the lawyer or the judge who really judges the deaf and mute, but the sign language interpreters.
Strive to change the status quo
But if you want to change this status quo, it is unrealistic for Tang Shuai alone.
So Tang Shuai tried many methods, and he sent all the people from their law firm to learn sign language, but after half a year, it didn't work at all.
After that, Tang Shuai suddenly thought of a feasible method, that is, to issue recruitment notices to various universities.
Out of more than 70 deaf-mutes, he selected five college graduates to come to their law firm for a year of devilish training and then to teach law.
In 2020, Tan Ting successfully passed the judicial examination after Tang Shuai's three-year training, becoming the first deaf-mute person in China to pass the judicial examination.
In August 2018, Tang Shuai was also crowned with the honorary title of "New Youth" by Xinhua News Agency.
In December 2018, Tang Shuai was also named CCTV's Rule of Law Person of the Year, and the Vice Minister of Public Security personally presented him with an award.
Later, in order to help the deaf and mute solve legal problems more effectively, Tang Shuai opened a WeChat public account of helping people to provide legal services.
On January 23, 2024, that is, the day before yesterday, Tang Shuai also posted a video of himself and the well-known actor Wang Xun on his Douyin.
After watching this video, the editor learned that Wang Xun and Tang Shuai actually knew each other for a long time and had a very good relationship, every time Wang Xun went to Chongqing to film, he would come to Tang Shuai to catch up.
And Wang Xun is also silently supporting Tang Shuai behind the scenes, and he is also an actor who cares a lot about the legal service work of the deaf and mute people across the country.
Wang Xun also said that because he felt that Tang Shuai's career and Tang Shuai's usual help to the deaf-mute were worth learning from everyone, he was also willing to follow Tang Shuai's footsteps and was willing to work with Tang Shuai to do his part for more deaf-mutes.
Tang Shuai also revealed in the video China that Wang Xun is actually a person who supports and cares about the public welfare of the deaf-mute or a legal service for the deaf-mute.
In the video, Tang Shuai also made a small request to Wang Xun, that is, he hoped that Wang Xun could create some movies related to the deaf and mute in his future work, so that our whole society could pay more attention to this group.
At the end of the video, Wang Xun also used Tang Shuai's Douyin account to pay New Year's greetings to the deaf and mute across the country!
epilogue
Here is a quote from Wang Xun: Being disabled does not mean being disabled, if you don't have a sound mind and thought, then you are truly disabled!
Finally, I also hope that more netizens can pay attention to and treat those who have physical defects, they are actually a normal person, please don't wear colored glasses to see them.