Wang Yi, a wheelchair-bound woman, has typed with only one movable finger for a dozen years, and has published eight literary works of over a million words that have inspired countless people.

Wang, born in 1989, lives in Nanjing, capital city of East China's Jiangsu Province. She suffered from cerebellar hemiplegia from birth, which deformed her hands and made her unable to walk or to have a normal conversation with others.

The disease is a life-long challenge but has never limited her imagination, dreams or hopes.

Wang learned by herself at home. She completed nine years of compulsory education with the help of her parents and teachers, and gained a great deal of literary knowledge.

Thanks to her family's ceaseless care and her teacher's support, Wang developed confidence and dreamed of being a writer in the future.

She started to keep a diary at 9, and still maintains the habit. She reads during the day and writes at night, sometimes until late.

"We also take her to travel around the outside world so as to broaden her horizons." said her father.

With the help of her parents, Wang practiced repeatedly to perfect her life and learning skills, overcoming many insurmountable difficulties in the process.

Struggling day after day, she was eventually comfortable in the world of literature and in writing about her youth.

When she was 19, Wang was able to use a finger to tap on the keyboard word by word while sitting in her wheelchair. Her prose works soon included Youth on the Wheelchair and Running on a Wheelchair, and her poem collections were Love Can't Wait, Waiting for Spring, Endless Love, and Reverse Growth in Silence.

Wang often participates in various writing competitions, and has obtained a third-level qualification certificate for literary creation.

In her latest novel, Winter Fireworks, Wang wrote that the bright and colorful fireworks will shoot into the sky and shine through the darkness. She hopes that people will experience the strength of life, the warmth of their loved ones, and the beauty of time while reading the novel.

Zhang Haidi, Chairperson of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, once wrote to Wang, praising her as "the tree of life that will never fall."

On reading this, Wang was grateful. "As she encouraged me to be a tree of life that will never fall, I would also like to encourage more disabled people to discover the beauty of life through my works."

Speaking of her greatest anxiety, Wang said frankly that it is being treated differently when meeting a stranger. In her mind, every disabled person has the right to live with dignity and freedom from discrimination.

"The sense of value and dignity comes from the efforts of the disabled themselves, but also from social recognition and acceptance as well as equal treatment," Wang expressed this idea via keyboard.

Wang, now a member of the China Writers Association (CWA) and a registered member of the Writers Association of Jiangsu Province, has gained lots of recognition from others.

At a seminar on Wang's poems, Jidimajia, Vice-President of the CWA, said that although Wang has a disability, the spirit shown in her works is perfect and positive.

One of the readers, Zhang Xin, said that based on her self-contentment, Wang uses words to bring strength to others, which is one of her most valuable traits.

"Running is the most elegant and bonny posture in life. Wang has been 'running' with her finger all the time, trying her best to chase toward a direction, despite the uncertainty of the distance," said Zhu Yongxin, a well-known educator in China.

(Source: China News Service/Translated and edited by Women of China)