A Chinese woman by the name of Wang Fang declined a disability pension despite being born with feet that face backwards. This is news in Britain, if only, perhaps, so the intriguing pictures of the 27-year-old waitress and resident of Chongqing could be presented for the public to view.
Apparently, Wang’s visibly different feet automatically qualify her for a disability pension in China, but she’s refused both the “disabled” identity and the cash.
“I can run faster than most of my friends and have a regular job as a waitress in the family restaurant,” she says. “There is no reason to class me as disabled. I’m like everyone else – except of course that I put my shoes on backwards.”
She does wear her shoes backwards, and it appears that while her feet do truly “face backwards” they are not literally attached backwards so much as bent back so that she walks on the tops of her feet. (Visual description of the two photos here: Wang stands at the edge of some stairs next to another woman in the first photo, the camera shooting from below to show Wang wearing red bootie slippers worn backwards, with the heels facing the camera. In the second pic, Wang sits on a bench next to a child — probably her five-year-old son — while the same woman from the first photo supports her outstretched legs at the ankles. Wang, grinning broadly, is slightly blurred in the background, with the focus in the foreground on her bare feet. They are, indeed, turned backwards, and also small, wide, swollen, deeply callused and her toenails appear visible where most of us have pads on the underside of our toes.)
It looks painful. And it’s fascinating, of course. That’s why the pictures– and the story as a whole — exist in Britain’s Telegraph. The news is that she denies being disabled or needing government money. The photos are evidence that she is visibly deformed and “legitimately” disabled. This little feature is newsworthy because she’s interesting to gawk at. The story is too short to inform readers of any details about who Wang really is or what might be her true circumstances or full reasons for turning down the pension.
What caused her feet to form this way? Is it common? Is there medical treatment that could have “normalized” her feet when she was a child? Would that have been helpful or completely unnecessary? Does she need special shoes or wear the big slippers all the time? Is there pain? Are there work accommodations that help her? If her waitressing job wasn’t in her family’s restaurant would she be employable in China? If her family didn’t have her as a waitress, would the business fold under the simple strain of paying another employee? How would that disability pension compare to a waitress’ paycheck? Would she have to give up her job (and paycheck, if the family business issues her one) if she accepted the pension? That last is almost certainly true.
We learn nothing of that, yet here is what the Telegraph makes sure to report:
Ms Wang, a mother to a five-year-old boy – whose feet face the more usual forwards – is not looking for sympathy, and is certainly no benefit scrounger.
Her son is normal and she is not one of those “benefit scroungers,” you see.
Here are some basic facts about disability in China that might have enriched what is otherwise a “freak show” feature:
According to the China Disabled Persons’ Federation there are about 83 million disabled Chinese out of the total population of over 1.3 billion people. That’s less than seven percent. (By comparison, the 2000 U.S. Census (.pdf file) estimates that over 19 percent of non-institutionalized American citizens aged five and older have a disability. That’s about 50 million and is considered by many to be a gross underestimate, depending on definition of disability used and how inclusive the count really is.)
Currently, only about seven percent of the one million disabled in China’s capital, Beijing, are employed. Other statistics are similarly grim, though the Paralympics, the Olympic event for disabled people that directly follows the Olympics themselves, is coming as part of the required commitment a host city must provide for the international sport celebration. Great hopes are pinned on all the accompanying accessibility China must create in Beijing and the lasting improvements it may provide for disabled Chinese.
Disabled children sold into slavery to become street beggars for racketeers in Beijing are a significant social problem, and the coming Beijing Olympics likely mean that one way or another these young beggars will be removed from the public eye. Thus, Wang — able to walk and run, employed, living with her family — is likely among the “elite” disabled in China.
Still, it’s likely that for purely financial reasons (never mind the social and cultural ones), Wang could not afford to accept disability status and the accompanying pension. Or, since she’s able to walk, run and work, she shouldn’t qualify at all for the pension, right? But then there’d be no story or reason to publish those photos.
h/t to Ruth at Wheelie Catholic
Cross-posted at The Gimp Parade
That’s a very negative point of view–that there is absolutely no reason the papers could post a little freak-show articles other than the “OMG BACKWARDS FEET” factor. I think it’s just the papers trying out that whole half-good-half-bad news thing I have heard about. Maybe it’s the, “Look at this woman with backwards feet! She is perfectly able to take care of herself! She is paid reasonably well, has a good social and family life and a place in her community! Disableds of the United States, rejoice! We lift your spirits.” Flip the page and there will probably be a lemonade stand that donates its money to charity or something. Or not–you tell me.
I agree with Kay’s analysis.
Having pitched articles (though not to newspapers), one becomes pretty acutely aware of thinking in that “what will people read?” way, that really often problematic “what’s exciting?” The reporter wants people to hear “backward feet” and want to gawk.
I think Kay also did an excellent job of pointing out how the reporter could have taken that urge towad reading “freak-show stories” and transformed the resulting article into something that would have been more interesting and productive (though there would still be issues, I’m sure).
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I’m curious about the stats — do we assume the less than 7% figure for disabled Chinese is a statistical distortion of some variety, caused perhaps by lack of reporting or different definitions of disability?
There’s a lot of possible story there, with Wang, with China, the upcoming Olympics both in Beijing and Britain, with the politics of “welfare” or even a well-developed straight human interest story on looking abnormal or pulling bootstraps or whatever. But the newspaper didn’t even suggest greater depth in any of these areas.
And I’ve had that experience of being asked by a journalist to be interviewed for a story on me, when I hadn’t just accomplished any great feat, when there wasn’t anything particularly newsworthy about me at the moment. Except my disability and academic success. I’ve earned my cynicism on this.
Having said that, I don’t object to the photos in and of themselves — though they are ALL ABOUT THE FEET instead of showing Wang, for example, doing her job or living life with her son. Human bodies are interesting in all their variation. Presented with little context, photos like these, taken to highlight her differences, are not meant to simply be viewed. They are so we can stare. It’s porn if Wang is just a subject for us to gawk at. Provide more information, put the photos in greater context of… something, and you could have a good feature article.
I’m curious about the stats — do we assume the less than 7% figure for disabled Chinese is a statistical distortion of some variety, caused perhaps by lack of reporting or different definitions of disability?
I expect there’s some deliberate statistical distortion by the Chinese government as with other information they’re secretive about. But also, I think there’s a lack of reporting and a lack of historical data gathering on the topic so that the numbers have risen significantly in recent years as services and programs are offered that encourage people to come forward. One statistic I found while writing this was that as few as two percent of disabled people in rural China get the accommodations they need, like prostheses or wheelchairs. With such a lack of assistance, I imagine there’s a corresponding lack of census taking on disability status too.
“It’s expect there’s some deliberate statistical distortion by the Chinese government as with other information they’re secretive about.”
I was wondering about that, but didn’t know how to phrase it.
“With such a lack of assistance, I imagine there’s a corresponding lack of census taking on disability status too.”
No doubt. :-/
I’ve read in an anecdote from an expat, who has married a disabled woman in China, that part of the problem is also cultural — the taboo against losing face means that asking for necessary medical care for a family member is often out of the question; people are supposed to keep it in the family, more or less. The expat giving this anecdote ran into this trouble when his wife’s parents wouldn’t allow him to hire a home care nurse, though his wife needed the help to breathe.
I’m glad to see you blogging here, by the way — I follow The Gimp Parade on and off and like your style.
On Chinese disability statistics: Matthew Kohrman, in “Bodies of Difference. Experiences of disability and institutional advocacy in the making of modern China” Univ. California Press, 2005, gives evidence of disability being differentiated and counted in imperial China at least 600 years back, as one might expect in this vast and highly elaborated civilisation. He also details how Chinese officials in the late 1980s launched a national survey on disability, and then went through elaborate manoeuvres to try to shift the figures upwards, since they had heard that ‘advanced modern’ countries were talking about ‘10%’ as an official, UN-approved, figure. Few people in the disability game now takes 10% seriously as a global figure. You can reach such a figure, or 15% or 20%, if a government offers significant finance to people having a disability. (Not so many will have the independence and sense of honour that this Chinese waitress displays). Lacking any such incentive, you get figures from 2% to 5% for developing countries with very large ‘young’ populations (China actually counted about 5%), and from 5% to 7% for countries with ‘greying’ populations. These are the kinds of levels of disability as it is perceived by the population at large. (If you flood an area with medical teams looking for any kind of impairment, anomaly or peculiarity, you can get 25%-40% — which might be useful for some purposes, but not the present discussion).
For further detail on disability, deafness, and social responses in East Asia, past and present, there are about 900 items listed, with some annotation mainly on the history, in a bibliography at:
http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200708.html or .pdf
miles
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