About 40 people attended this lecture held in SOAS on Wednesday, 28 September, 2009

Attitudes to disability and official policies have changed and progressed during the Reform period of the past 30 years. Traditional prejudices and discriminatory practices are gradually being replaced by government, NGO and media concern for people with disabilities. There are about 46,000 registered civil society organisations, not including self-help groups, in China today. The Chinese Disabled Persons Association was founded in the early 1980s. The Paralympics, which followed the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, demonstrated to the world how far China has developed in this respect.

Stephen described how his own visual disability led him to get involved in radio broadcasting in China, after years of work producing documentaries there and getting deeper insights into social conditions, particularly in rural areas. He produced a 20-part radio series on disability for the BBC Chinese Service, broadcast to China. When he heard a blind Chinese educator lecturing in London ten years ago, he was moved to become further involved in a scheme to encourage Chinese children, especially in the remoter rural areas, to attend school. The project, ‘Golden Key’, was at first not officially registered, as this is a complicated and lengthy process.

Officially, there are presently at least 84 million registered disabled people in China, 20 million more than in the 1980s. Many more are probably unregistered, and the increase is largely due to industrial and traffic accidents. Many impairments and disabilities could be prevented, ameliorated or cured by improved living conditions, safety, health care and education.

Stephen found that radio broadcasting is a cheaper and more popular medium for disseminating information and carried out field work to research his projects. Working initially with a German NGO organisation, they investigated social conditions and encountered various forms of visual impairment, especially in the poor, remote rural area of Wulan Chahu in Inner Mongolia:

In one particular village 80% of the children (from 5-20 years old) had eyesight problems (specifically a very rare condition called microphthalmus), but the local authorities were ignoring this problem. The problem itself could not be cured, but it could be prevented early on by paying more attention to the causes which lay in chemical pollution from pesticides and medicine taken by mothers in pregnancy.

Stephen initiated and ran a project called ‘In Touch for China’, to provide vital information to visually impaired and other people in China, including methods of preventing disease, legal rights, education etc. Stephen helped to raise money through the BBC World Service Trust, and began working with visually impaired young adults in Beijing. He was amazed how quickly they learnt new skills, such as computer, journalism and broadcasting skills.

With this support, an organisation called ‘Beijing One Plus One’ was set up with international funding, by six disabled peolple in Beijing. A radio production studio was set up and over 2 years over 40 blind and partially- sighted people were trained in radio production and other skills. They broadcast basic information on disability, health and rights and also set up mobile advice clinics to provide vital information to the most needy population in poor rural areas. They also inform the villagers where they can receive basic medical treatment and about their civil rights, according to the U.N. Convention and Chinese law.

In promoting the interests of blind people, as with other disabilities, there are many old prejudices, superstitions and misconceptions to combat. For instance, many blind people traditionally become masseurs, which is a profession much associated with the blind in public perception. Now some have diversified to train and work in other professions, including radio broadcasting. During the Paralympics there were as many as 300 million listeners to the special broadcasts and on-line reports made by Beijing One Plus One. These developments have spurred on the work of NGOs in this area, and also helped encourage the growth of civil society in China. However, a considerable proportion of funding for these organisations comes from abroad. There is still a great deal of uncertainty about the actual legal status of NGOs in China.

Developments in the lives of disabled people in China take place within the evolving network of charities and NGOs, which is largely a new concept in China. Donation for people in need, particular in crisis situations, was boosted also in 2008 after the Sichuan earthquake. It is only becoming recognised recently that civil society organisations can and should contribute to such causes and supplement the state’s funding and aid to those in need. There are problems when such international organisations as the Red Cross get involved with reconstruction projects (such as rebuilding after the earthquake), when their main task is immediate rescue work and fund-raising. They were overwhelmed by donations, and the Chinese army was immediately mobilised to do rescue and rehabilitation work. As a result, many NGOs were actually denied access or expelled from the disaster areas. However, it was reported that children who had suffered during the earthquake and its aftermath had not received adaquate counselling.

In spite of the problems, Stephen felt that much progress had been made in the field of care, education, training and integration of disabled people in Chinese society. Of course, greatest and fastest progress has been made in the cities, and this also reflects the growing wealth gap between town and countryside over the past couple of decades. Still, as the discussion session after the talk revealed, there are many schemes such as in the remoter villages of Shanxi Province, where aid workers go out to the rural areas to make contact with disabled people and help to promote education and change attitudes towards the disabled.