How this man refused, to allow his physical conditions to defeat him, how he’d, worked hard, to perfect a skill that’s, artistic, such an inspiration to all of us! From the Newspapers, translated…
“I’m almost out of time, I want someone, to carry the torch for me”, Rong-Dzong Yen, with the reputation of “Father of Locksmiths”, after he’d retired from working as a locksmith, he’d started learning to paint, and started using a self-developed skill, “painting to chase the lights”, because he’d felt grateful that when he was nineteen, he’d once learned to paint for a hundred days in the arts training program for the handicapped, and now, he will be setting up classes, and have the physically handicapped individuals come to his home where he’ll be, teaching them to paint.
The sixty-year-old Yen had polio, and at age fifteen, he’d felt that he’d needed to have a viable skill that he can live off when he’s older, he’d, abandoned his formal education, and learn the trades of locksmith and carving the stamps, at nineteen, he’d wanted to learn to improve his carving skills, plus he’d still held on to how he’d received a “D” in arts in his fifth grade year, he’d started taking classes with the arts education for handicapped individuals, and although he’d only taken the art lessons for a short one hundred days, it’d, “opened up that window for me”.
As Yen was in his painting class, one day, the former president, Chiang Kai-Shek visited, and his work caught the president’s attention, Chiang asked him, “What are your plans after you’d perfected your skills?”, without a thought, Yen answered, that he’d wanted to be like his art instructor, Liou, to teach handicapped people art free of charge too. He said, that to this day, he’d still recalled, how the art instructor, Liou had, used his mouth and foot to draw, as he’d taught the mouth-and-foot artist to draw too.
Yen didn’t continue learning to paint, until he’d retired from carving stamps, and working as a locksmith, and moved to Canada, did he pick up his paintbrush at the age of fifty again. In the short, five to six years’ time, he’d found a new way of painting, “chasing the lights”, and received an honorary award for his skills development by the Canadian Painters’ League, and that moment, he’d recalled the promise he’d made to the former president, Chiang Kai-Shek.
“You can come to start the classes tomorrow”, in recent years, because of his brains’ shrinking in size, he found it more and more difficult, to pick up a paintbrush, and he’d ached all over as he walked too, worried that his health is deteriorating, he’d decided to hold the art classes at home, he’d originally wanted to work together with the government, but, the funding couldn’t come in time, and he’s about, to set up the classes, from money out of his own pockets soon.
And so, this, is how this man worked so very hard, to perfect a viable life skill, and he’d managed, to turn his hobby into a career venture, despite his physical conditions.