Fruit-pit carver helps people with disabilities

When one door closed, another opened. Ci has a gift for fruit-pit carving. With the help of his father, he was lucky to learn the craft from Li Yongli, an accomplished maestro in Shenyang.

"I could tell his condition from day one, but I liked the boy very much. And he was much more focused and worked harder than normal kids," Li says.

With rapid progress made, Ci earned several awards with his works of art, which were sought by enthusiastic collectors. The carved olive stone bracelets he made often sold for more than 20,000 yuan (about $2,908)

Having found success in fruit-pit carving, Ci came up with the idea of running a workshop and giving free lessons on the crafts to disabled people like him to help them.

With the support of the local disabled persons' federation, Ci founded his studio in 2016.

Yan was among Ci's first students. She calls him the "young master".

She was paid 800 yuan for her first piece of work and bought her 90-year-old mom a mobile phone for the elderly, which has an audio prompt to identify the caller.

More than one million people with disabilities in China overcame poverty in 2018. And mastering a skill not only helped them to improve their financial situation, but more importantly, brought them confidence and hope.

Dong Xiaoguang, a retired jeweler who suffers from polio, rides for more than an hour every day on his electric wheelchair to Ci's workshop.

"Carving is a kind of activity that requires communicating with others, and I enjoy the process of learning and the chatting."

The young master and his 16 apprentices have organized many carving charity bazaars over the past three years and donated more than 100,000 yuan to institutions like the disabled persons' federation.