Dong Lina, 39, the first visually impaired master of broadcasting in China, graduated on Wednesday.

A former masseuse, a career path many people with visual impairment take in China, Dong was born sighted to a family of farmers in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province. She was diagnosed with congenital amblyopia, the loss or lack of development of clear vision in one or both eyes, and went completely blind at the age of 10.

Like many visually impaired children, Dong finished compulsory education at a school for disabled people and later began learning tuina, a type of Chinese therapeutic massage, at a school for the blind. In 2003, she obtained a job as a masseuse. 

Her life back then seemed like a preset route, but Dong was unwilling to accept the path set for her as the only option.

"Teachers always told me and my classmates to learn massage well, as it was 'the only way out' for us, but still, I was not content, and I wanted more options in my life," she recalled.

In 2006, Dong got the chance to learn broadcast recitation. She quit her job and moved to Beijing alone. 

"I was deeply captivated by the first broadcasting and hosting training class. It's the first time I know that sound can be so attractive!" 

Since then, she has fallen in love with broadcasting and spent almost all her time practicing her pronunciation, which was not easy for her because she had to first transcribe all the handouts into Braille before she could practice. And this was not Dong's only challenge either. She had pronunciation problems, and the way to fix them was to look at oneself in the mirror while speaking to see the shape of your mouth and tongue, except Dong could not see.

"The teacher figured out a way where I would touch his mouth to imitate the way he pronounced," she said.

However, despite all the difficulties, Dong achieved the top marks in the Mandarin proficiency test a year later, indicating that she is qualified to work as a professional broadcaster.

In 2010, she participated in a national recitation contest and won the second prize. The organizers of the contest were impressed by her passion and encouraged her to study at the Communication University of China (CUC).

Dong became the host of a radio program in 2020. But she never stopped chasing dreams. In the same year, she returned to the CUC to pursue a master's degree in broadcast and television while simultaneously working as a part-time teacher at a language institution. 

Now having graduated with her master's degree, the sky continues to be the limit for Dong.

China has nearly 85 million people with disabilities, of which more than 17 million are visually impaired.

For decades, the country has been striving to support the education, employment and welfare of people with disabilities, enabling people like Dong to expand their career choices and pursue a better quality of life.

"Graduation is the end but also the beginning. May we, wherever we are, have dreams, persist in love, and always keep our feet on the ground," said Dong during Wednesday's ceremony.

(Cover image: Dong Lina gives a speech during her graduation ceremony at the at the Communication University of China in Beijing, June 28, 2023. /CMG)