Asia One
18th September 2020
Visually impaired Chinese scholar becomes social media star after test triumph
Ang Ziyu, who took the gaokao, the national college entrance exam, in the eastern province of Anhui has become quite a celebrity on social media in recent months.
The blind teenager won renown after scoring 635 points, 120 points higher than the local admission requirement for first-tier universities, and won a place at Minzu University of China in Beijing.
Born in April 2001 with impaired vision, Ang's sight gradually deteriorated and by the time he left primary school he was almost completely blind as a result of damage to his retinas.
As an independent person, he learned to dress himself and eat unaided when he was young, and he can also fold clothes and even change his quilt cover.
His parents didn't know what his future would be like, but they tried to provide him with the best education possible.
"I decided to keep studying, even if I couldn't take the college entrance exam. I still wanted to read books and learn things," Ang said, adding that he was unwilling to bow to fate.
His family was given great hope in 2014, when Li Jinsheng, a 46-year-old from Central China's Henan province, became the first blind person to take the gaokao.
It wasn't until last year, when Ang took the exam for the first time, that he actually touched the Braille exam paper.