A young man walks through an alleyway near Beijing's ancient Rear Lakes area, weaving in and out of the crowd with some difficulty. Disabled since birth, Xi Fu has trouble walking, and almost no use of his hands.
He arrives at a square beside the lake just as the sun is going down and plops his things on the ground. Deftly using his feet, he spreads a cloth, mixes his paints, lays out his brushes and selects a piece of rice paper. He looks up from his makeshift studio to see about 60 people gathered around.
Xi picks up a brush between two toes, dips it in water and then a pool of thick black ink and begins to draw large Chinese characters on the paper. The characters are not perfect, but display a certain indescribable quality. The crowd is transfixed as each character slowly appears. When he is done, his audience breaks into a collective smile of appreciation at the words - 'joy amidst bitterness'.
This simple expression aptly sums up the life of the 30-year-old 'foot' artist, who has turned disability into advantage, a notable feat in a society where the vast majority of disabled are isolated by a lack of infrastructure, social prejudices and well-meaning but overly protective families.
The calligraphy is snapped up by a well-dressed man and another steps forward to buy the next one before Xi has even begun. A few sympathetic people toss some money in front of him. A little girl of around five is so mesmerised that her mother has to drag her away.
Few in the crowd would guess that this itinerant artist, whose name means Seeking Happiness, is a complicated figure, an avant-garde dancer, a performance artist, a fan of western rock music and Asian folk tunes, a man who is articulate about the obstacles life has thrown in his path.
Xi has worked hard to get where he is but, like many successful people, he met a few helpful friends along the way - encounters which mainlanders like to describe as yuanfen, or fate.