China Beijing Olympic Games

Nie Shuai works on Fuwa paper-cuttingIMy name is Nie Ying. Nie Shuai is my younger brother. He was born in Zou, Shandong Province. As a child, he suffered from congenital muscular dystrophy, which paralyzed him by the age of 10, which is also when he dropped out of school and stayed at home. By the age of 15, he lost sensory perception of his middle and lower limbs. It was also in this year that he began learning the art of paper-cutting. Three years later, he started creating Fuwa-shaped paper-cuts. After three months of painstaking effort, a series of these Fuwa-inspired designs was born. On March 25 of this year, my brother passed away, leaving his sole wish forever behind — presenting his works of art to BOCOG.

My brother, Nie Shuai, left this world shortly after his 19th birthday. As a teenager with a severe disability, he was barely able to eat sunflower seeds with his hands, but it took him merely three months to finish 39 pieces of Fuwa paper-cuts. Giving his creations to the Beijing Olympic Games became his last dream.

My brother was very lovable when he was a young boy. “Shuaishuai” is the intimate nickname my family called him. But he was inflicted by congenital muscular dystrophy. When he began formal schooling at the age of seven, my mother had to carry him there on her back.. At ten, Nie Shuai had to quit school because of paralysis. Worse yet, he lost sensory perception of the limbs below his chest, except for his wrist and fingers. My family invested much money to cure his illness, and so was deep in debt. Besides, I was studying at a college in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province. To deal with the financial difficulty, my parents had no choice but to go out to make money. So my brother was left alone at home. Our mother, afraid that he would be too lonely by himself, found some colored paper for him to play with. By and by, he developed a keen interest in paper-cutting. The small animals he cut were very lifelike.

Paper-cutting brought vigor to his life and linked him to the Beijing Olympic Games.

Fuwa paper-cutting made by Nie Shuai

On Shuaishuai’s 18th birthday, January 25 (based on the lunar calendar), I downloaded a set of Fuwa pictures and gave them to him as birthday present, for I knew he was yearning for the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Fuwa captured his attention at once. After playing with them in his hands for a while, he suddenly asked, “Sister, how about turning them into paper-cuts?”

The next day, he began with a simple picture of”Fuwa playing baseball.” Paper-cutting, relatively simple for normal people, is exceptionally hard for a person with a disability, like him. Because he could not move his arm, he asked our mother to place a small board pressed between the wheelchair to support his arm, and a small table in front to prop up his wrist.

In this way, Shuaishuai cut his designs, bit by bit. For a simple paper-cut like “Fuwa playing baseball,” an able-bodied person could finish it in a few minutes, whereas it took him two days. When he came to the sixth pattern, he asked, “Sister, can I finish it? Or should I give up?” At this, tears welled up in my eyes.

“The opening ceremony is a long time away. Don’t worry. You’ll make it,” I encouraged him.

“In winter, the temperature in our apartment was only three to four degrees Celsius, for the heating system does not function well. Shuaishuai’s hands were frozen stiff, but he kept cutting, never letting out a groan. Sometimes the pain hurt him so much that his numb hands couldn’t hold the scissors. Pair after pair of scissors fell off from his hands and broke upon impact with the floor; by the time winter passed, over ten pairs of scissors were broken. At the sight of this, both Mom and I didn’t disturb him, even though tears were streaming down our faces. Because Fuwa paper-cutting was his dream, the only thing we could do was to place a hot water bag under his arm to relieve his pain.

“Shuaishuai designed a special tool to make his paper-cuts despite his limp hands. He asked mom to bisect a blade, a section of which was fastened onto a chopstick. Then he held the chopstick in his mouth to cut the pattern. Some kinds of paper were hard to prick. Mom brought him some plastic foam, which he put under the paper so that it was easier for him to cut the paper apart.

A good three months passed by the time he completed his last paper-cut.

At that time, ticket reservation for the Games had begun. My brother found the application form on the internet, but he switched off the computer all of a sudden. It puzzled me. “Why not reserve a ticket?” I asked.

“No. Even if I reserve one, I cannot go,” he answered. “But can I send my paper-cuts to the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games?” he added, with his eyes on his paper-cuts. “Of course you can,” I assured him.

He wanted to have his works mounted before sending them to Beijing, so I wheeled him to the best painting mounting shop I knew of. However, the owner told us that they were too fine to mount, so we had to seal them in a photo studio. But, this cost a lot of money. “What if we sold my paper-cuts on the street?” Shuaishuai suggested.

During that summer holiday, we set up a stall and sold his paper-cuts in a square nearby. We earned some money each day, and since we sold over 100 paper-cuts, we saved up enough money to seal his Fuwa paper-cuts.

On the evening of March 25, Shuaishuai, suffering from a cold then, didn’t feel well. We brought him to the best hospital in the city. There were so many patients there that we couldn’t find a doctor to see my brother. My brother abruptly told Mom, “I’m a little tired.” Mom held him and tried to rest him against the back of the wheelchair. Suddenly, his head dropped. “Shuaishuai! Shuaishuai…!” yelled my mother.

Silence.

My brother never opened his eyes again. Sending his Fuwa paper-cuts to Beijing was his unfulfilled wish.

For months, numerous internet friends were very concerned about Shuaishuai and his paper-cuts. My parents also wanted to realize his wish. It just so happened that an internet friend in Beijing offered to help us contact BOCOG. Soon after the May Day holiday, Mom and I will go to Beijing with my brother’s paper-cuts in the hope that we can materialize his wish. I think he would wish us good luck and the Beijing Olympic Games a complete success.