Sun Chenlu likes to give makeup and style tips on Chinese social media. The desire to look attractive is universal, especially among young people.
Sun, 30, is in a wheelchair since a car accident made her paraplegic four years ago. Now, she's an influencer, with about 90,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, a social media and lifestyle platform.
She also has two part-time jobs－selling fresh fruit on WeChat and writing marketing articles online for a study-abroad consultancy.
"I'm like a 'new me' that has crawled back to the human world from hell. If life is like a flight, I've gone off course but didn't crash. I'm doing my best to return to my track and have a new start," Sun writes on social media.
"Many people told me that I'm like a light coming into their life. At the same time, it's because of their encouragement that I can come out of the haze and lead a new life."
She lives in her hometown, Guiyang, Guizhou province, where she's taken care of by her parents. Before the accident, she worked in a study-abroad consultancy in Beijing and planned to pursue a doctorate in Canada, and had traveled to about 20 countries.
She studied for her bachelor's degree at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and completed her postgraduate studies at University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
Her life changed completely in January 2017. She was then in Beijing, going by taxi to the airport for a trip to Singapore for the upcoming Lunar New Year, when the accident happened on a highway.
She spent a great deal of time in intensive care and had five operations. A spinal cord injury paralyzed her from the waist down. It was a blow for her, and she felt really depressed until she gradually recovered due to her strong spirit and her parents' support.
"Now I focus more on the things that I'm capable of doing in a wheelchair and what I like to do, such as writing and painting. When you can't change the reality, you have to change yourself," she says.
She's writing a book about her life story, thanks to an invitation by a publisher.
Sharing online
In May 2018, she uploaded her first post to Xiaohongshu, sharing her story. Her life then was all about rehabilitation exercises and she just wanted to communicate with others.
It took her four hours to write the article－she used a voice-to-text function on her smartphone and revised the words with her fingers that don't have much strength. She was touched by the comments from other users of the online platform and was encouraged when some other people in wheelchairs also shared their experiences.
A turning point came in September 2020 when Xiaohongshu invited her to share her story in a speech. She was surprised at the invitation, because she had just over 3,000 followers then.
"I didn't update my personal post regularly, which only had a few short videos about my rehabilitation exercises and daily life in a wheelchair," she says.
Some influencers, who share their personal favorites and lifestyles on the platform, also joined the activity to deliver speeches. Inspired after chatting with them, Sun started to map out a plan to regularly share her daily life, including makeup tips and her trips with parents.
She spent time exercising, wearing makeup, for example, holding an eyebrow pencil with her weak fingers.
Now, she writes a script before filming a short video and edits it on her smartphone, updating two or three short videos every week. She carefully prepares her outfits: clothes, makeup and ornaments.
Once when the family visited Luoyang, Henan province, she brought three sets of hanfu (traditional Chinese apparel) and wore makeup for a video shoot.
"My motivation to make short videos comes from my fans, who wait to watch my new work," she says.
Most of her followers are young women. Some send her gifts via express delivery and write her postcards. They consider her as an "agony aunt "and share their own troubles with her, such as suffering from depression or illness.
She replies to some messages and shares books about regulating emotions.
Sun travels with her parents－she covers the expenses with the money she earns from her part-time jobs. Her online photos are taken by her father.
At home, her 58-year-old mother, Wang Xiu, is in charge of adjusting the position of four lights and a smartphone for the best shots of her.
For most older Chinese like Wang, short videos are still a novelty. She has to learn the filming process from scratch.
It also took time for Wang to be fully supportive of her daughter.
After the accident, when Sun was in the hospital for recovery, she wanted to put on a lipstick when her condition became better. But the mother didn't understand her. Wang's thought then was: "The most urgent thing was to recuperate. She was not having any social gatherings. Why did she even bother to apply a lipstick?"
However, as Wang saw her daughter in better spirit after making short videos, she gradually changed her mind.
"Shooting the short videos is not just for her love of beauty. It's also a kind of promotion of positive energy. Many netizens love her work and leave comments to encourage her," Wang says.
Adaptive sports
Sun has also explored her potential in sports. In October, she participated in the 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, winning two gold medals in table tennis－doubles and team, respectively.
She started to play table tennis about two years ago, practicing one to two hours every day. As her fingers have little gripping power, she has to learn the sport from scratch, with a bat tied to her hand. It took her about half a year to master the technique of serving. It's difficult to keep her body balance when she raises her arm to serve, because she can't move waist downward.
She keeps the daily habit of playing table tennis, hoping that she can join the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Also, she has learned how to swim while wearing buoys. She went surfing in Sanya, Hainan province, and had a breathtaking paragliding flight in Luoyang.
It's all because of the help of volunteers from "Krankin' thru China", a campaign to help physically challenged people engage in adaptive sports so that they can reintegrate into society. It was founded in 2013 by Joshua Dominick, a US citizen who lives in Beijing, together with his friends.
A professional coach and Sun had the paragliding flight together, and she enjoyed a bird's-eye view of the fields.
"It was so exciting, like being in a roadster in the sky, with wind blowing by my ears. I suddenly felt that my life could have possibilities. It was really good to be alive," she says.
The authorities recently unveiled a guidance to promote the construction of a certification system for a barrier-free environment in sectors such as roads, public transport and public service facilities. Although the barrier-free environment in China is developing, especially in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, Sun says she finds the need for improvement in smaller cities.
She says it's not that easy for people in wheelchairs to go out. For example, in some places, it's difficult to find a barrier-free lavatory that functions properly.
Once she found one that was stacked with cleaning equipment. Only four- or five-star hotels in China have barrier-free guest rooms and she calls them in advance to make a reservation.
More importantly, she has to ensure whether a hotel has a barrier-free ramp at the main entrance and an elevator in the hall before booking.
"It's important for people in wheelchairs to go out. I used to be embarrassed by others' staring at my wheelchair. It's time for me to change my mentality. Also, the books that I read and the road that I travel have brought me self-confidence."
Contact the writer at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn
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