‘I’m out of your league’: woman in China who lost limbs in car crash slams patronising marriage offers as she fights disability stereotypes
- Young woman had left leg and arm amputated after suffering horrific injuries when sports car she was passenger in crashed in 2020
- 28-year-old conquered initial despair to become online influencer with 280,000 followers
A young woman in China who lost an arm and a leg in a car accident has become an online influencer dedicated to encouraging disabled people like herself to love life, cheering up many people online.
Weng Xinyi, 28, from southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was the front-seat passenger in a Porsche sports car when her friend crashed it in 2020.
The injuries she suffered meant she had to have her left arm and leg amputated.
Weng is now a volunteer with the local Disabled Persons Federation and an influencer with 280,000 followers on Douyin, the mainland equivalent of TikTok.
On the platform, Weng is known by her Chinese nickname You You, which means “right right” in English. The name represents her determination to live a good life despite only having her right limbs.
A Douyin post documenting her rebirth as a “cyborg superwoman” over a three-year period has attracted more than 2 million likes.
In an interview with the mainland media outlet Hongxing News in September, Weng said she was in a state of despair following the accident.
However, she did her best to accept her new body for the sake of her parents.
“She didn’t shed a tear at the hospital. I can’t imagine how much pain she was in,” her mother, Huang Yunjun, told Hongxing News.
Weng said she made up her mind to dress her prosthetic limbs in as cool a way as possible and break stereotypes about disabled people while she recovered in hospital.
She dyed her hair bright blue, chose to not cover her artificial limb while outside and had a special futurist style shell made for the prosthetic that makes her look like a sci-fi “right-side warrior”.
“My body is damaged but my soul is complete,” Weng said in another Douyin post.
Weng went viral again in October, slamming people who had offered to “marry and take care of her” and those who judged her appearance during a live-stream session.
“Some people said why is a disabled person bothering to dye her hair and get manicures. I say I am out of your league even though I am disabled,” she said.
Weng constantly performed at charity events and made videos online to encourage people like her. She also started a business designing and selling yoga wear for people with different body shapes.
“Disability is my status, not my weakness. It doesn’t stop me from shining in the many meaningful things I want to do,” she said.
Weng’s resilient and optimistic life attitude has touched many people online.
“With half your body, you have lived your life to the fullest,” one person said on Douyin.
“Every experience, no matter good or bad, is a lesson that makes us what we are on our journey,” said another.
