‘One of China’s most inspiring people’: high achieving deaf woman sets mainland social media abuzz with news of wedding
- Loses hearing after given wrong medicine as baby, learns lip-reading
- Studies hard to become specialist in immunology, machine learning
A Chinese woman with a hearing impairment who has been an inspiration for her persistence and achievements has married, much to the delight of her many online fans.
Jiang Mengnan hails from a village in remote Yizhang county, central Hunan province. At six months old, she lost her hearing after being given the wrong medication for pneumonia.
With the help of her parents, she learned to lip read when she was very young. She did not attend a school for children with disabilities, but went to a regular state school where she sat at the front of the classroom so she could see teachers’ lips.
Jiang studied hard and achieved consistently high grades.
After sitting the competitive entrance exam, she was admitted to Jilin University, a top institution in northeastern China, where she received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree majoring in pharmacy.
In 2018, she was enrolled by the prestigious Tsinghua University’s School of Life Sciences as a PhD student in Beijing, specialising in tumour immunology and machine learning.
Jiang was named by state broadcaster CCTV as one of the 10 most inspiring figures of 2021, alongside recipients such as Nobel Prize laureate Yang Chen-ning and top athlete Su Bingtian.
In early May, Jiang held her wedding in her hometown in Hunan province and videos of the ceremony went viral on mainland social media, reported the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.
Her husband, whose name was not released, is a former classmate at Tsinghua University and a native of eastern Anhui province.
The news of Jiang’s nuptials brought her a flurry of best wishes on mainland social media.
“Wish this excellent girl happiness for her whole life,” one online observer wrote on Baidu.
“Congratulations. You strived hard for your happiness. I salute you,” another said.
“She has come along a road full of thistles and thorns. Her life story is quite encouraging. I admire this sister,” said a third.
Some years ago, Jiang had an artificial cochlea implanted in her ear, which helped her hear for the first time in more than two decades.
In a report in a Tsinghua University alumni publication last year, Jiang said she would undertake postdoctoral studies and hoped to find a teaching position at a university after graduating.
“I haven’t decided which specific area I will dedicate myself to but I’ve set my mind on scientific research,” she said.
Jiang said she does not think of herself as a weak person just because she has a hearing problem.
“I often tell others not to lower the requirements for me given that I cannot hear,” Jiang said.
“Sometimes when I achieve a good grade, they will extol me and exaggerate my achievement. I don’t like that. I hope people around me apply the same standards to me as they do to others.”
