【推荐2】Jiang Mengnan received the award of Person Touching China for 2021, chosen as one of the 10 models nationwide who spread positive energy and promote social integrity (诚信).

Born in 1992 into ail ethnic Yao family in Yizhaiig County, Hunan province, Jiang’s world has been silent since she was 6 months old, when medicine she was given irreparably damaged her hearing.

When she started to learn walking, her parents began teaching her to read lips. They also taught her vocalization by putting her hands on their throats, so she could feel the vibration (震动) of their vocal cords. It was a process that consumed (消耗) time and energy, but her parents never gave up and Jiang learned to speak.

When she was old enough, Jiang became a student of a standard primary school, not a special school, as was common for most children with disabilities. It was difficult at first. During lessons, teachers would often write on the blackboard with their back to the students, so Jiang missed much of the content. She had to copy down everything on the blackboard and study alone after class to keep up with her classmates.

Her perseverance made her a top student. In 2011, she achieved an impressive score on the national college entrance exam and was admitted to Jilin University in Changchun, Jilin province. After graduating in 2015, she began pursuing an advanced degree at the university, studying computer-aided drug design. In 2018, she was accepted as a PhD candidate at Tsinghua University’s School of Life Sciences and received her doctorate at the end of 2021.

“I’m always grateful for the respect I received from my parents, teachers and friends,” she said. “They never give me special attention for my imperfection, which means I’ve never seen myself as different from anyone else.”

In the future, she wants to continue scientific research in pharmacology and contribute her values to solving problems of life and health.

【推荐2】A 16-year-old girl from Changsha, Hunan province, successfully reached the top of Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West, on Monday morning, becoming the youngest Chinese female to conquer the world’s highest top from the southern slope (坡).

Xu Zhuoyuan is a first year high school student from Hunan province. On April 15, she left Changsha for Nepal. On April 21, she began her long walk from Lukla. On April 28, she arrived at the base camp and started her altitude adaptation training at once. At 10 pm Beijing time on May 14, Xu Started walking from Camp 4 at an altitude of 7,950 meters on the southern slope of Qomolangma. After a punishing 10-hour climb, she successfully reached the summit.

Xu Zhuoyuan’s father, Xu Jianglei, was the first person from Hunan province to reach the top of Qomolangma. Xu Zhuoyuan has been exploring remote areas with him since she was very young. Despite her young age, Xu Zhuoyuan has already climbed five mountains over 5,000 meters in China. When she was 12 years old, she made a statement on Hunan TV saying, “I will climb Qomolangma.”

Four years later, she achieved her promise. Although Xu Zhuoyuan has rich climbing experience, she has been experiencing high-intensity professional training non-stop to conquer Qomolangma. Last year, she climbed Mount Muztagata, which stands 7,546 meters. “Human beings are small in the face of nature. We should respect nature and get closer to Qomolangma,” said Xu Zhuoyuan.

She brought the gloves her father used when he reached the top with her as a form of inheritance and to bear witness to her own dream coming true. After finishing her university studies, she hopes to continue climbing and achieve the “7+ 2” (7 tops plus the North and South Poles).

【推荐3】There is no magic method for living longer and better. But a certain character makes getting older a lot more meaningful: having an open mind and heart.

David Starbuck, an archaeologist (考古学家), continues digging up history in New York despite a diagnosis (诊断) of cancer. Last August, a doctor told 70-year-old David Starbuck he had cancer, and that he had only six months to one year to live. David had a ready comeback.” I would prove that the doctor wrong and live for years,” he says. “It’s the stubborn (固执的) ones who survive. We, archaeologists, are like that. I live for whatever I will discover next.”

For the past three decades, David has devoted his life to the dig of one of North America’s most important eighteenth-century sites. Fort Edward, near Glens Falls, New York. You might think that the archaeologists would be satisfied resting on their laurels. “A lot of archaeologists never want to retire,” he says. “We are programmed toward the love of discovery.” In addition to directing yearly digs at Fort Edward and nearby Rogers Island, David keeps busy writing research reports and laying the groundwork for what he hopes will become a visitor-friendly site at Fort Edward. “Some people have families to live for,” he says. “I live for archaeology.” David has published almost twenty books and been written up in newspapers and magazines.

“Archaeologists are storytellers,“ he says. A single small artifact (手工艺品) can tell us about a whole world from the past. “It’s no longer abstract history. You are connecting with someone from hundreds of years ago.” Finding and sharing these moments keeps David alive-physically and spiritually. “The best site,” he says, “is always the one you are about to find.”

【推荐2】On the outside, 12-year-old Luna seems like your average kid. It’s not until you get to know her that you learn that Luna is anything but average.

Born with a heart defect (缺陷) called dextrocardia, Luna has had three open-heart operations and continues to pursue her interests in art and fashion. But when Luna was approached by athletic shoe company Saucony to design a shoe for sale across the country, it came as quite a surprise.

“This is so incredible. I got to use my art and creativity for something new that I’d never thought I’d be able to design,” Luna said. She is one of six patients from Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) who have partnered with Saucony to design their own shoe to launch the Shoes with Soul campaign.

“Rather than just a donation, we wanted to create an experience and a moment that would not only raise money, but also awareness to highlight all the amazing work that’s being done at BCH,” says Chris, Saucony’s vice president. “Specifically, we wanted to give some of the BCH kids an opportunity to share their stories and their talents with the world.”

Luna’s design is fashionable. “On the tongue, they digitalized one of my drawings, and then on the bottom it’s a really bright pink color, and on the inside, the sole of the shoe is actually another drawing I did of a sunset,” she said. “Thinking about kids everywhere around the world wearing my shoe is amazing. It blows my mind.”

The income from the shoe sales will benefit the Boston Children’s Hospital Cardiac Fitness Program, which encourages kids to “find your possible” through personalized exercise programs tailored for each individual patient’s heart condition.

“It feels really good to help people and it's really something I can relate to,” says Luna. “The advice I would give a kid or someone like me is to never give up. There are a lot of kids out there with your condition and you’re not alone.”

【推荐3】Since the age of three, Chelsie Hill had dreamed of becoming a dancer. That ambition nearly ended one night in 2010. Hill, then a 17-year-old high school senior in Pacific Grove, California, was in a car accident that put her in the hospital for 51 days and left her paralyzed from the waist down. For most people, that would have ruined any hope of a dancing career. For Hill, it was the beginning. Far from being a barrier, her wheelchair emboldened her. "I wanted to prove to my community—and to myself—that I was still 'normal, ' " she told Teen Vogue.

"Half of my body was taken away from me, and I have to move it with my hands, " Hill told Today, "It definitely took a lot of learning and patience. " After graduation, Hill wanted to expand her dance network to include women like her. She met people online who had suffered various spinal cord injuries but shared her determination, and she invited them to dance with her. Hoping to reach more people in a larger city, Hill moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and formed a team of dancers with disabilities she calls the Rollettes. "I want to break down the stereotype of wheelchair users and show that dance is dance, whether you' re walking or you 're rolling", she said.

Hill has attained what many of us never will: her childhood dream. She's a dancer. But the Rollettes have helped her find something else just as fulfilling. Every year she holds a dance camp for wheelchair users of all ages and abilities. In 2019, 173 participants from ten countries attended.

For many, it was the first time they 'd felt they belonged. Steph Aiello told Teen Vogue that working with Hill challenged her to be more independent. "My injury doesn’t stop so I can live my life, so why am I going to stop living my life because of my injury? " she said. Edna Serrano says that being part of the Rollettes team has given her the courage to get behind the wheel of a car, "I didn't know I could do so many things that these girls have taught me. "