Painting an inspirational picture

Colorful journey

Now Li has an apprentice who just graduated from college.

While coaching the newcomer, Li is exploring her own style and hopes to become an illustrator and open her own exhibition one day.

"Now my father's attitude has changed after seeing that I have my own career," she says.

Headquartered in Changsha, Li and her husband have a studio in Shanghai to seek more business opportunities.

Cao Yingjie is a Shanghai client of the wall-painting studio. He hired the team to paint street-style patterns on the surface of the stone counters of a grocery market in Baoshan district.

"They're energetic young people with a passion to create new things, and you can feel that in their paintings," Cao told a local news outlet. "They're also a professional, dedicated team, often working late into the night on the designs for us."

Like Li, an increasing number of people don't let their hearing impairment hinder their talent in art and make a living through their brushes.

On social media, there are many hearing-impaired people sharing their lives to fight bias, indicating that they can fully participate in social activities.

Although they are just a small number among the country's 27 million hearing-impaired population, Li hopes that their stories can inspire more people facing similar battles to build their own careers and achieve their goals, regardless of how tough it may be.

"Life can be challenging to the hearing loss community who are somehow excluded from conversations, but we are not alone, and we can find our way of expressing ourselves," the painter says.