The Man Who Never Gave Up
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“The baby’s out! It’s a boy! Congratulations!”said the midwife as she happily brought the baby to his mother. Suddenly, she noticed that something was not right. The midwife took a closer look and shouted in surprise,“Mrs. Cheng! There is something wrong with his legs!”The mother lying in bed saw the baby’s deformed legs and fainted with fright. After she regained consciousness, she started to cry and told the midwife,“Please kill the baby. We cannot afford to raise him!” Hearing this, the baby’s Grandpa and Aunt shouted,“No way! He is a child of our family. We will raise him by any means! Let him live!”
The child was named Cheng Feng-Hsi, and he grew up in a tiny village in Kouhu Township, Yunlin County. As he was born with a pair of deformed legs, he could not walk like a normal person. He could only crawl around slowly. As Cheng came from a very poor family, he was frequently made fun of. But he did not give in to fate. Instead, he bravely took on the challenges that life threw at him.
When Cheng turned six years old, his family became too poor to feed him. So, his parents asked an old street performer to take Cheng away, hoping that he could somehow earn a living by performing. After wandering about for a few years, the old street performer died, and Cheng had to return to his home in Kouhu.
After that, Cheng and his older brother tried to rear ducks on the outskirts of town to make a living. Unfortunately, a typhoon came and washed the ducks away. Cheng desperately tried to save the ducks, and almost drowned himself. Luckily, his dad and older brother arrived in time to save him.
Cheng only began attending elementary school when he was nine. His school was very far away and he had to crawl all the way there. But Cheng did not mind the hardship. Rain or shine, Cheng always turned up for class and studied diligently, for he wanted to go to college to change his destiny.
In the end, he successfully made it into the Faculty of Law at National Chung Hsing University, and became a college student. During those days, making it into college was a big deal. The hardship that he went through made people respect him even more.
“A Boat in a Stormy Sea”is Cheng Feng-Hsi’s autobiography. He regarded himself as a tiny boat in a stormy sea. Though he felt lonely, he never felt lost. Cheng’s story teaches us that if someone without legs can make his own success, normal people like ourselves can too.
After graduating from college, Cheng married Wu Ji-Zhao, and they both taught at Kouhu Middle School. Sadly, not long after he got married, Cheng passed away due to liver cancer. He died at the young age of thirty-one. In order to commemorate his spirit, Madam Wu Ji-Zhao established the Cheng Feng-Hsi Foundation to help others like him to deal with life’s challenges.
