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In China today over 80 million people have been born with or have developed a physical or mental disability. In some cases their disability has stopped them having access to standard education and employment, but mostly it is the assumptions others have about their abilities and the discrimination they face in all areas of life which holds them back. A Helping Hand is one of five video profiles from subjects interviewed in “We Are Different, We Are the Same.”

Part V of this series takes place in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan with Gong Changxiang, a mentally disabled man working in a vocational center.

To learn more about this series see this post.

“We Are Different, We Are the Same” is a web documentary created to help break down barriers and stigmas surrounding China’s large disabled population. The video gives a snap shot of disabled persons living throughout China.

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In China today over 80 million people have been born with or have developed a physical or mental disability. In some cases their disability has stopped them having access to standard education and employment, but mostly it is the assumptions others have about their abilities and the discrimination they face in all areas of life which holds them back. “Hello My Name Is …” is one of five video profiles from subjects interviewed in “We Are Different, We Are the Same.”

Part IV of this series takes place in Fuyang, the small city of 10 million in Anhui Province with Yuan Weiwei who was born with Cerebral Palsy. This video is a bit different and focuses on the family of the subject. This is also my favorite of the series.

To learn more about this series see this post.

“We Are Different, We Are the Same” is a web documentary created to help break down barriers and stigmas surrounding China’s large disabled population. The video gives a snap shot of disabled persons living throughout China.

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Part IV of this series was the hardest of the videos. It also turned out to be my favorite.

The task immediately became a bit daunting when we found out our subject who we were meant to be profiling — couldn’t talk much.

While Weiwei was not afraid of the camera, his speech and dialogue were not developed enough to get entire sentences out of him. He also was not the most mobile of our subjects. He had trouble getting around, which made our filming locations limited.

However, even given these limitations the story developed in front of us into a rather heart warming story. The camera ended up turning to his mother to help drive the narrative, while Weiwei would maintain the visual story.

After a couple different versions of the script, we finally settled on the version you see here. After this we went into post production where the hardest decision was the music.

From an audience perspective, or film makers perspective, I’m not sure if people realize how hard it is to pick the correct music. It will instantly change the mood of your film and can even change the message. In many ways, I think the music is just as important as the images.

Our choice here, which came from stocksound.net, is bordering on cheesy — or too much. The story in itself is actually quite sad. However, the mother’s continued support and optimism is pretty inspiring. Given the dichotomous nature of those two feelings, it was very tricky to decide if we were bending the story toward an unreal truth with this music. There are a couple other versions with completely different songs, which won’t see the light of day, but they did truly change the mood of the film.

When we settled on this music, the images and pacing of the story were cut to fit and the product ended up being my favorite of the series — including the main movie.

Three weeks after these videos published on the premier of a Youku Channel, we got word that a local NGO in Anhui saw the video and actually approached Weiwei’s family to help. As a journalist and film maker this is great to hear. That our documentation of a live may have helped a family. Hopefully, more details on this later …

For now, enjoy “Hello, My Name Is …”

Jonah

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In China today over 80 million people have been born with or have developed a physical or mental disability. In some cases their disability has stopped them having access to standard education and employment, but mostly it is the assumptions others have about their abilities and the discrimination they face in all areas of life which holds them back. China Doll is one of five video profiles from subjects interviewed in “We Are Different, We Are the Same.”

Part III of this series takes place in Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui with Jiang Yuqiu — who has brittle bone syndrome

To learn more about this series see this post.

“We Are Different, We Are the Same” is a web documentary created to help break down barriers and stigmas surrounding China’s large disabled population. The video gives a snap shot of disabled persons living throughout China.

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In China today over 80 million people have been born with or have developed a physical or mental disability. In some cases their disability has stopped them having access to standard education and employment, but mostly it is the assumptions others have about their abilities and the discrimination they face in all areas of life which holds them back. Working Dreams is one of five video profiles from subjects interviewed in “We Are Different, We Are the Same.”

Part II of this series takes place South of Beijing with Li Chao — a mentally handicap chef.

To learn more about this series see this post.

“We Are Different, We Are the Same” is a web documentary created to help break down barriers and stigmas surrounding China’s large disabled population. The video gives a snap shot of disabled persons living throughout China.

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Li Chao, the subject of part II of this series was a pleasure to film.

Although he appears serious during a couple moments of the film, I can assure you — as soon as the camera would stop rolling he was smiling and laughing. This was really nice to see — regardless of any of the hardships he had faced, he continued to smile his way through life.

Support from his family and coworkers was also great to see and I believe the result of the compassion people have shown him, has resulted in a normal life for Li Chao.

He goes to work. He is married. He hangs out with his family. Really, there was very little difference between this man and any other, despite his disability.

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In China today over 80 million people have been born with or have developed a physical or mental disability. In some cases their disability has stopped them having access to standard education and employment, but mostly it is the assumptions others have about their abilities and the discrimination they face in all areas of life which holds them back. Blind Ambition is one of five video profiles from subjects interviewed in “We Are Different, We Are the Same.”

Part I of this series starts in West Beijing with Han Yao — a visually impaired stenographer.

To learn more about this series see this post.

“We Are Different, We Are the Same” is a web documentary created to help break down barriers and stigmas surrounding China’s large disabled population. The video gives a snap shot of disabled persons living throughout China.

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Part I was perhaps the easiest of the videos from this series. Our subject Han Yao was very easy to work with and completely open to us filming her life.

Her husband was also a big help. He joined us for the day and interestingly enough, he is also visually impaired. Perhaps more interesting is their combined interest in photography.

At some point in the video we show them taking pictures but had we had more time, we would have gone deeper into this. Both of them enjoy the art of photography. You might think this hobby would not be the first choice for people who can’t see through the camera, but from this shoot, I learned this is a bad assumption.

While the couple does have limited vision (what was described to us as “about the width of three fingers”) they take pictures based on other senses. Its a very interesting process to watch.

The subject’s interest in photography made it a little easier for us to photograph her. Some of our other subjects were not nearly as comfortable around the cameras — but Han Yao was completely used to it and the effect was shown on the video.

I think Hao Yao’s confidence and accomplishments are to be admired by all. Especially in the physical and mental environment of China, to achieve so much is very impressive.

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In the fall of of 2011 I was approached by Save the Children to help tell a story. This story would be an ordinary story — a snapshot into the lives of five different people. However, those five people were not exactly ordinary. The subjects all had physical or mental handicaps.

But what was ordinary about these people — was their desire to live life to its fullest. They wanted the same things all other Chinese people wanted. They wanted jobs and financial security. They wanted a husband or wife. And they wanted to be treated equally and with dignity. While their lives were a little different, they were in many ways the same as all other people.

“We Are Different, We Are the Same” is a web documentary created to help break down barriers and stigmas surrounding China’s large disabled population.

In China today over 80 million people have been born with or have developed a physical or mental disability. In some cases their disability has stopped them having access to standard education and employment, but mostly it is the assumptions others have about their abilities and the discrimination they face in all areas of life which holds them back.

Through contributions from Save the Children China, the European Union and Kingfisher — friend and journalist Kit Gillet and myself got the opportunity to help create short videos to help show this ordinary side of China’s disabled population. We didn’t want to portray these people as heroes or create sympathy. Instead, the idea was to show the actual reality of their lives — and minimize superficial and sensational ideas surrounding them.

Toward the end of the main feature Li Weihong, Vice Chairman of the China Association of the Blind says:

“I think disabled people can participate equally in normal life and through their efforts help others. I think having a disability is not bad luck but simply an inconvenience. We can do a great job and be involved completely and equally, as long as we are provided with a barrier-free environment and help in overcoming our disabilities.”

This quote summed up a big part of our goal. While showing the ordinary side of these people, we also had to show the different side — as well as the challenging side.

We wanted to make an integrated video package which would allow a big picture view — but also give the opportunity to see the individual peoples lives. With the help of Save the Children we found five subjects in Beijing, Anhui and Sichuan who we could spend some time with filming their daily routines. After filming them we found a couple experts to ask about issues surrounding China’s disabled population. This accumulated to about 1 TB of footage which we split up into six videos. The first, embedded above is the main piece titled “We Are DIfferent, We Are the Same.”

This 10-minute feature gives an over view of the current situation for disabled people living in China. After piecing this together, we made five additional short four-minute videos that show the ordinary aspects of the people’s lives seen in this film.

The video profiles include a visually impaired stenographer in Beijing, a teacher in Hefei with brittle bone syndrome, a mentally handicapped chef outside of Beijing, a boy with cerebral palsy in Fuyang and a ping-pong playing, car washing man in Chengdu. We talked to their families, their spouses and their friends and coworkers. We saw their daily triumphs and hardships while at the same time, saw how society was viewing them as they went through their daily routines.

I believe the situation for disabled people China is immensely better than in was in the past. However, the population still faces great hardships and barriers to having normal lives. Many of these hardships come from China’s infrastructure and environment.

Li Weihong, goes on to say:

“The biggest problem, As I see it, is to form an environment where the blind can see, the deaf can hear and where the physically-handicapped can get around. If that can happen then the disabilities of those with handicaps will be gone and they can live a life like any other person.”

I Believe Weihong is talking about more than a physical environment here. And while it is easy to look at China as a developing country with issues that need tending, I think many of these same issues still exist in the West.

Please enjoy “We Are DIfferent, We Are the Same” and help share these videos with people of all countries to help create greater awareness of issues facing disabled people around the planet.

Barriers and stigmas can only be broken with dialogue and awareness.

Check back throughout this week for the five shorter video profiles.

Jonah