Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese President and Chairman of CPC’s Central Military Commission, met with advanced collectives of the fifth national model of self-improvement and assisting the disabled, and outstanding representatives in the individual commendation congress on the morning of May 16, 2014.
Student Cai Cheng, who majored in social work in the spring of 2010 at Tianjin School for the Disabled of the Open University of China (OUC), was named as the fifth “National Model of Self-improvement” and was granted with an interview and congratulations by General Secretary Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders at the Great Hall of the People. Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan, and Zhang Gaoli all kindly shook his hand.
Cai Cheng, male, born in July of 1990, is now the manager of Chunhuaqiushi Housekeeping Service Company of Tianjin. Although he is a blind man of 24 years old, he can play allegro and guitar, compose music, and is an accomplished singer. He even won “Best New Talent” in the youth group in the “National Performance of New Works of Allegro in Li Runjie Awards” in 2005. He participated in the fifth national art festival of blind schools, deaf schools, and schools for the mentally retarded held jointly by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the P.R.C. and China Disabled Persons’ Federation in 2007. His comedy “Waiting for Sunshine” won the special prize. In the eighth national disabled person art festival in 2013, the musical drama “On Wings of Song” in which he performed won the first prize. What’s more, Cai Cheng was awarded “Top Ten Youth of Self-improvement” in Tianjin city in May of 2009, and the model of self-improvement of Tianjin city in 2013.
In January of 2011, with the joint help of the Disabled Persons’ Federation of Hedong District of Tianjin city and his family and friends, he set up a housekeeping service centre for the disabled. Cai Cheng said, “Many Disabled Persons are suffering from a serious degree of physical disability. They cannot take care of themselves in daily life and they need others’ help. So I set up a housekeeping service centre for the disabled, I hope to help other disabled friends around me and make them live more easily.” Although he faced many difficulties in establishing a business, he didn’t give up. Right now, the company is on track and he gets more and more business.
By Yang Lusuo, Tianjin RTVU