Article │ CHANG, HSUEH-HUI         Photographer │ JHUANG, YONG-HONG

Translator | HUANG, JIA-SIANG       Resource | https://goo.gl/c8ggzU

 Music Is a Light of Life

Music helps Yu-Siangbreak through the visual impairment with the companionship of his family and the power of music. The visually impaired musician, Huang Yu-Siang makes every moment count. Even though he lost his sight, you could still find outhopes and dreams now and then from him.

Huang Yu-Siang, who was born to suffer from retinopathy, is destined to be invisible for a lifetime. When he was two years old, he showed his amazing piano skills at a family gathering, wherefore he began his life of music.

However, as the visually impaired students, the path that Huang Yu-Siang learned the piano did not go so smoothly. Fortunately, his mother looked around everywhere difficultly for a piano teacher and finally, at his age of four he met the first benefactor of his life, Mr. Han Jhih-Fen.

Yu-Siangcouldn't see the piano, so he could only play it once after Mr. Han Jhih-Fen plays it once, too. Mr. Han Jhih-Fen's careful leadership led Huang Yu-Siang to be immersed in the joy of learning music. In the exploration and correction, it was like lettering that drawing the incomprehensible and complicated music score into the head. "How you memorize the music score if you can not see it?" "Because it is my favorite thing, I don't think that memorizing it is very hard." He said lightly, until now, no matter how complicated the music score, he can play it correctly.

Music is the light in the life of Huang Yu-Siang. It helps him surmount visual impairment.

Education in Childhood

Since childhood, Huang Yu-Siang who is particularly interested in the various sounds around him likes to knock and beat the things he gets, and even the pots and pans have become his musical toys. "When I was a child, I had bowls of different sizes at home. I arranged them according to scales, and they were accurate on each scales." Perhaps, because Huang Yu-Siang has the visual challenge, his hearing for sound is sharper than the average person, and he has the so-called " Sensation of tone." 

Generally speaking, the mother always worried that the child would hurt themselves during the knocking of the pots and pans. However, Yu Xiang’s mother did not deliberately stop him, and she let Yu Xiang play freely. Moreover, even though he has a visual challenge, she is not particularly tolerant of him. It is still necessary to do the homework and often take him out to play that like the average family. Even though the classmates laughed at him as a blind, Yu Xiang’s mother didn't say much, “This is a fact...” and let these things pass lightly.

The usual parenting style makes Yu Xiang have no reason to indulge in visual impairment. "Till now, I still feel that I am only a little different from the average person, but I don't particularly feel that I need to feel inferior. It is thanks to my mother's parenting style," he said leisurely about his mother's love without traces.

After the Movie Award

After the "Touch of the Light" movie winning, Huang Yu-Siang's life has changed. He has to contact many strangers because of work, and he has begun to try to make friends with them. Also, due to the performance opportunities, he is flying around. These things that seem to be very simple are not only because he has the belief that he never gives up what he can do better. More importantly, he wants to use music to connect with the world and live more confidently.

''I used to play music to comfort my depressed friends.”  When Huang Yu-Siang talked to a friend once, he found that his friend seemed to be depressed and sobbed. At the moment, he did not say anything, and he just played the piano silently. It unexpectedly comforted my friend. "At the time, I felt very happy and very fulfilled. It turned out that my piano sound can comfort people."

Throughout the interview, Huang Yu-Siang always had a bright smile on his face, and his optimistic look made people forget that he has a visual challenge. In the process, he constantly reiterated, "The visual impairment is very lightly impaired. If you want to do something, you can actually say it clearly and generously. Don't be afraid to communicate with others. Don't be afraid to make friends with others and have confidence in yourself. We don’t need to be inferior. We will still find out what we are good at and we also can do a lot of things."

Breaking through the visual impairment, Huang Yu-Siang lived the wonderful life with the companionship of the family and the power of music. Even though he lost his sight, you could still see hopes and dreams from him time to time!

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EDEN welcomes anyone interested in helping people with disabilities to join our project. For more information, please follow this link: https://goo.gl/KqcCAc EDEN Vision Impaired English Camp 2018: http://eden.international/news_detail.php?bulletin=1&b_id=964