A Chinese man with cerebral palsy has defied the odds to graduate from both Peking University and Harvard, thanks to the relentless support of his single mother.
Ding Zheng, 37, from Hubei Province, was born with cerebral palsy in 1988 after complications during childbirth linked to medical malpractice. Doctors told his mother, Zou Hongyan, that her son would never live a normal life and urged her to let him go. She refused.
“I told them I’d fight to the death if anyone removed his tubes,” Zou recalled, the
South China Morning Post
reported.
Zou took on the challenge of raising her son alone after divorcing her husband, who had rejected the child. Despite surviving on a monthly salary of just 100 yuan (US$14), she scraped together funds for Ding’s regular rehabilitation, which cost 5 yuan every other day.
A college teacher by profession, Zou took on multiple side jobs: from teaching etiquette to selling insurance to cover the costs of therapy and schooling. While serving as a local delegate to China’s National People’s Congress by day, she worked nights to make ends meet.
Zou also made sure her son developed everyday skills to live independently. She spent an entire year teaching him to use chopsticks, determined that he would not be treated with pity,
CGTN
reported.
Despite having partial paralysis on his left side, Ding excelled academically.
In 2007, he was accepted into several top Chinese universities and chose Peking University. He later enrolled in its School of Transnational Law, where professors encouraged him to apply abroad.
He went on to earn a Master of Laws degree from Harvard and passed the New York State bar exam, all within one year.
Ding now works as a legal counsel in his hometown.
