Xinhua
4th September 2022
Feature: Special quartet brings people with intellectual disabilities into limelight
Editor Huaxia
Deftly fixing sheet music, calibrating the piano, and testing the microphone, Wan Shicheng, 25, looked around the stage, briefly introduced the band members, and began to sing.
The harmonious flow of music made it hard for the audience to imagine that it was a band composed of people with intellectual disabilities.
Wan's intelligence quotient, or IQ, was 40, equivalent to a three or four-year-old child. The guitarist Zhang Mingqiu, keyboardist Chen Tairan and drummer Huang Shi were all people with autism spectrum disorders.
They were from a help center for parents of people with intellectual disabilities in Yueyang City, central China's Hunan Province. On last year's Mother's Day, the band was formed under the guidance of the center's instructor Peng Xiaokang.
Peng became a volunteer at the center in 2019. With a music education background, he was surprised to find that many individuals with intellectual disabilities have artistic talent.
https://english.news.cn/20220904/b540c6a1c9da44208255a05a15e91f12/c.html