Star uses gift of gab to garner opportunity

Raised by disabled parents in Ningxia, Li Yang expresses pride that he has the ability to repay them for their sacrifices

A presenter for Yinchuan Media Group, a news organization in the capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, recently made headlines after appearing on a China Central Television singing program.

Li Yang, the 29-year-old presenter, garnered 2 million followers on social media platforms, including short-video app Douyin, by posting videos in which he plays multiple roles depicting scenes from his life.

Many of his plays were inspired by the lives of his parents. The prototype for his protagonist－a fictional woman named Chunxiang－was his mother. In his most-viewed video, he played both Chunxiang and her husband in a dialogue that mocks husbands' answers of "Whatever" to their wives' questions about everyday situations such as what to eat for dinner.

Speaking in the local dialect and acting with proper costumes and vivid expressions, the one-minute video gathered 1.3 million "likes" on Douyin. In one example of life's little ironies, Li's parents, who can't hear or speak, managed to raise a child who later chose communication as a career. And now he is playing characters based on them.

Li's mother was born with the condition, while his father lost the ability to hear and speak after contracting brain fever at age 5 and not getting proper treatment. "I have to imagine the tones because I don't know how they would talk," Li said after his TV performance.

Family members worried Li would have hearing problems like his mother when he was born.

"My grandmother made a loud noise on purpose to test my reaction, and she felt greatly relieved when I responded to the sound," he said.

With little education, his parents never learned sign language in school; instead, they invented a series of unique actions to convey meanings that only family members could understand.

"But sometimes they have difficulty expressing their emotions and spiritual needs, so I always keep an eye on their appearances to gauge their mood," Li said, adding that he often uses exaggerated expressions and actions to communicate with his parents.

Li said they overcame many obstacles to raise him as best they could.

One winter night when he was a baby, he fell from the heated bed onto the cold ground. Though he cried loudly, his parents couldn't hear him and slept on until their neighbor broke a window and poked them with a stick to wake them up.

"By then, my legs were frozen and had turned purple," he said. "The dimple on my face is actually a scar that was caused by that accident. Luckily, it's in the right place," Li joked.