Tai Lihua gets the signature of writer Mo Yan for her new proposal during the CPPCC meeting. Jiang Dong / China Daily

Tai recalls her teacher writing "the handicapped" on a blackboard and was enraged. She is glad that people now refer to people like her as "living with disabilities" instead.

"I have always dreamed that people with disabilities should be treated with equal respect and have an equal opportunity to live happy lives," she says.

Tai started painting at a young age, which enabled her to take the college entrance exam with other high school graduates and finally enrolled in the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts.

At 15, she made the decision to dance professionally.

"It's hard if you're dancing and you can't hear the music and the beat, because music is the soul of dance," Tai says.

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Dance between the lines

Her solution was to practice harder than her peers and work on understanding the meaning of a musical work.

"My feet were often frazzled and torn, but I kept on dancing. It was my dream to dance like others and I couldn't give up."

Tai often refers to having a dream and says she was inspired by Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, which led to her creating the My Dream show in 2000. The show became a signature dance of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe in which Tai served as the lead dancer.

In 2002, Tai became part of the troupe's management and in 2006 she was named director.

She says cultural and moral education is as important as dancing drills for young dancers.

"She is a teacher, a trainer and a big sister for the younger dancers," says Tai's assistant Li Ying.

"The troupe travels around the world to perform and is always warmly welcomed," Tai says, "because the younger dancers are taught to behave well and politely, like making their beds and cleaning the room upon leaving every hotel."

Tai enjoys a happy private life with green plants and her beloved husband, with whom she has created their own set of gestures to communicate.

Contact the writer at meijia@chinadaily.com.cn.

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