Despite losing his legs, busker shares his zest for life in song

Chen Zhou , 26, lost his legs in a train accident 14 years ago and had to resort to busking for a living. His busking journeys across the country have led him on a quest for happiness.

How did you start busking? And how did you lose your legs?

I learned the ropes from my grandfather, who was also a busker. My parents divorced when I was very little and my father had custody and he later passed me on to my grandfather. I started living with him when I was about six and I went around with him. But I was very naughty back then and always tried to escape from home because I felt I was not accepted by my relatives. On one of my runaway trips when I was 12, I fell from a train and was run over by the train - that was how I lost my legs.

I've only ever been to school for 10 days and that was the first 10 days of primary school. And then I ran away, never to go back. After the train accident, my relatives did not insist I to go back to school. They let me busk with my grandfather because I was a good means of attracting sympathy. I tell people I graduated from the University of Society. I left home again and did a lot of odd jobs like shoe polishing and begging. In 1999, when I was 17, I started my own busking routine.

How does it work?

Over the past nine years, I travelled around China on an electronic tricycle and staged my shows mainly in public squares, main streets, parks and night markets, but basically I'll sing anywhere. I sing mostly pop songs. In the summer, I go north and in the winter head south. I am on my sixth tricycle now. I've lost count of how many places I've been to. I've been to most provinces and regions except Tibet and Xinjiang . I go everywhere from big cities like Beijing and Shanghai to small villages.