One-armed Zou Yu leads disabled people to prosperity: a disabled body does not mean a disabled life

His disabled body did not bring disability to his life. Having lost his right forearm but remaining ceaselessly self-reliant, Zou Yu is not only a major grower but has also led the villagers onto a road to prosperity. Successful in his career, he has cared for disabled people for ten years as if it were a single day, helping them find employment, start businesses, prosper and support their families, so that every disabled villager can live with dignity.

A photo of Zou Yu in daily life

Zou Yu, male, born in June 1964, now lives in Xiliu Village, Xiakou Town, Nan'an District. He is a widely known major nursery-stock grower and an unusual figure. In 2014, he was recommended as a candidate for "People Who Moved Chongqing," and in June 2015, Nan'an District recommended him for the June "People Who Moved Chongqing Monthly Figure" selection.

Losing the right hand does not mean losing life

When Zou Yu was 5 years old, an accident cost him his entire right forearm and made him disabled, yet he complained little and felt no inferiority. Without a right hand, he still had a left hand. Optimistic, he began practicing writing, holding chopsticks and getting dressed with his left hand, and he insisted on going to school and studying like other normal children. Gradually, Zou Yu learned to do things with only his left hand, and his self-care ability became strong enough for him to live like a normal person.

Today, past 50, he has long since married and had children. Eating at the same table with his son, he always uses his left hand to serve his son food, and his smooth movements mean you would never notice he is a disabled person. Amid the laughter and conversation, Zou Yu shows not the slightest dissatisfaction with or inferiority about his own body.

Pioneering a road to prosperity together with his father

Zou Yu not only lives like a normal person but also bravely shoulders family responsibility. When young, he was diligent in thinking up ways to make a living, hoping to give his family a good life. "At that time there were 6 people in the family, but less than 3 mu of land, and we only planted grain and vegetables; it was not even enough for the family to eat." Zou Yu recalls that only by breaking with traditional farming habits could the whole family live well.

So Zou Yu and his father decided to boldly grow something city people found "novel." In the 1980s, when all the villagers of Xiliu Village were busy plowing fields and growing grain, Zou Yu instead drained the water from his fields and planted evergreen and huangjue trees (Ficus virens).

The path of nursery stock was full of hardships. At that time, flower and nursery seeds could not even be bought in the town, so Zou Yu could only search the mountains with his father for wild tree species. Paying no heed to his own disability, Zou Yu gritted his teeth and pushed on; climbing mountains, climbing trees and picking fruit were no trouble for him. At last, the flowers bloomed as expected. He remembers the first time, when he put the jasmine he had carefully tended into a back basket and took it to the Jiafangbei flower market to sell. In one morning, he earned twenty or thirty yuan, which was no small sum at the time. The news spread through the whole village at once, and the surrounding villagers, influenced by him, "changed trades" one after another to develop flowers and nursery stock. In this way, Zou Yu led the villagers out onto a road to prosperity through nursery-stock growing, and today Xiliu Village has become a famous nursery-stock village in Xiakou.

Studying techniques by lamplight, he became a major nursery-stock grower

There is no shortcut to success. From an ordinary farmer to a major nursery-stock grower, Zou Yu paid a great deal. At first there was no agricultural technician in the village to guide him, so Zou Yu could only teach himself nursery-stock cultivation. In order to study the best cultivation methods for different varieties, every time he went to market in the city, he would always go to a bookstore to read nursery and agricultural-technique books, reading for a whole afternoon at a time. Often feeling it was not enough, he would take out several hundred yuan and simply buy the books to study at home.

By day Zou Yu hoed weeds and pruned branches in the planting fields; by night he read planting books by lamplight until the early hours. Zou Yu believes that growing flowers and nursery stock is something with substance: it takes care and brains, and also a quiet mind. After growing them for a long time, every flower and tree feels connected to him, and sometimes when the nursery stock he cultivated is sold, he still feels reluctant to let it go.

With his solid cultivation techniques, Zou Yu's flowers and nursery stock gradually took shape. In 2006, Zou Yu boldly contracted villagers' land, expanding the nursery-stock growing scale to nearly 100 mu. The nursery stock sold as far as Qinghai, Sichuan and other places, with an annual income of nearly 400,000 yuan.

Caring for and supporting disabled villagers for ten years as if it were a single day

Having become wealthy, Zou Yu deeply understands how hard it is for disabled people to find employment and start businesses. "They can just as well hoe weeds and prune branches; what they need is trust and opportunity." When his planting base needed workers, he left all the opportunities to fellow disabled villagers, and more than 10 disabled people from the surrounding area are regular workers at his base.

Zou Yu always says his own ability is too limited, and that helping the village's disabled people can only let them earn a little living expenses. But in fact, what Zou Yu brings to the village's disabled people is not just job opportunities, but more importantly the chance for them to regain hope and confidence in life. Under his leadership, the village's disabled people began a new life, and some also went into the nursery-stock business and became their own bosses.

Villager Li Xiquan developed severe deafness 10 years ago and is a needy household in the village. Because he lost his hearing, Li Xiquan simply could not find work, and it was Zou Yu who invited him to work at the base. "Nobody outside was willing to hire me, complaining that my ears were inconvenient and that I could not hear clearly what needed to be done; only he was willing to employ me." Speaking of his experience of working away from home, Li Xiquan feels bitter. "Only Zou Yu is willing to hire us. He is disabled like us, and I feel there is no distance between me and this boss."

Working in a planting base where there is no distinction and no distance, effort brings reward. "Though we are disabled, we all want to make this base do well." Having found work and earned money, Li Xiquan gradually forgot the pain brought by disability and became cheerful and confident.

Gradually, Li Xiquan also planted nursery stock at home. Although it is not on a large scale, he says confidently that his dream is to become a second Zou Yu and, through hard work, become a major grower in the village. Like Li Xiquan, there are many disabled villagers at Zou Yu's nursery-stock base who have regained hope in life.

"I hope to lead them along, to grow the village's flowers and nursery stock well and sell them far and wide, so that they, like me, can not only live like normal people but also earn income, prosper and support their families." That is what Zou Yu says.

He has no high diploma and no healthy body, yet Zou Yu lives with a tenacious heart. His strength and optimism, bold innovation, hard work and warm-hearted kindness have enabled him to hold up a family and also to hold up a village's prosperity industry. He has built a road of hope and a road to prosperity for disabled villagers, so that every disabled villager can, like him, live normally and with dignity.