Huang Heini and the art of giving voice to people with disabilities in China

by Silvia Torriti

The biennale of the Starry Starry Night Foundation – which in China promotes the artistic creations of people with disabilities by raising public awareness of their potential – has made a stop in Florence. This project reflects the significant progress made in recent years in the People's Republic on school inclusion.

Florence (AsiaNews) – The Starry Starry Night-Yongyu International Art Biennale by Children and Youth with Disabilities project, launched in 2023 by Chinese activist and artist Huang Heini, was presented in Florence in mid-May.

The event’s organising committee chose Italy, specifically Florence, to raise awareness outside China’s borders about the Starry Starry Night Foundation's commitment to helping children with varying physical and mental abilities discover their potential through artistic expression.

There are many reasons for the choice of Florence; not only is it the city where Huang completed his artistic training, but it is also the place where his initiatives to welcome Chinese immigrants have long been concentrated.

Since the early 1990s, the Tuscan capital, along with nearby Prato, has become one of the main destinations for Chinese immigrants to Italy.

The meeting was organised in cooperation with the Centro di ricerche interculturali e di documentazione didattica Italia-Cina (Centre for Intercultural Research and Educational Documentation Italy-China, CRID), an association based in Florence that has been working for about a decade to promote intercultural exchange between the two countries, especially in the field of education.

In addition to Huang Heini, the meeting was attended by Yin Qi, consul general of the People's Republic in Florence, and sinologist and CRID president Maria Omodeo, who, along with Huang, has promoted important projects supporting ethnic minorities in some areas of central and southern China.

Speakers included Professors Paola Zamperlin and Cristina Giachi (from the University of Florence, which hosted the conference), Francesca De Masi (president of the Italian Association Hàgape, dedicated to the educational development of students with disabilities after completing their schooling), and Irène Schrader and Chao Ren, artists and project volunteers.

Huang Heini opened the meeting by explaining the reasons behind the Starry Starry Night International Art Biennale. As she noted, this initiative was undertaken with the aim of providing young people with special needs a space to showcase their artistic creations and thus raise public awareness of their right to a quality education, beyond the perspective of more traditional charitable activities.

The exhibition was officially opened on 26 December, last year, at the Mango Art Museum in Changsha, the capital of the south-central province of Hunan, in the presence of representatives of the most important local institutions.

The choice of location was first and foremost a tribute to the artistic roots of Huang Yongyu, Huang Heini's father, a painter and former professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, known for using traditional Chinese art as a weapon of resistance and criticism against the injustices of the Cultural Revolution.

The exhibition was curated by Wu Hongliang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and director of the Beijing Painting Academy.

The chosen "The Seven Colours of Light” not only evoke the poetics of natural physics but also symbolises the truest and purest perception and expression that every child has of the world.

Together with his team, Wu collected 260 works from schools across China, as well as France, Italy, and other European countries.

For Huang, the paintings and ceramics on display are imbued with a simple joy and a desire to share. Each tells the story of the children’s own "world”, hoping that this "world" can be understood by a greater number of people and receive attention and care from society.

Although disability may limit the body, it certainly cannot limit the wings of artistic imagination.

The biennale was organised with the support of several local organisations and institutions, including the Hunan Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation, the Hunan Provincial Education Department, and Hunan Broadcasting and Television Media Co., Ltd.

Although the exhibition in Changsha ended in early March, promotional activities for the project continue, including abroad. The next edition of the biennale will open at the end of the year in Shanghai.

As Consul Yin pointed out during the meeting, China has more than 85 million people with disabilities, around 6 per cent of the population.

The path to ensuring the recognition of their rights, in particular access to inclusive, quality education, has been long and fraught with obstacles.

Although the term "Learning in regular classrooms" (suiban jiu du) first appeared in official documents in 1987, it was only 30 years later, with the publication of the Special Education Promotion Plan 2017-2020, that regular schools were explicitly encouraged to accept children with any recognised disability.

Until then, the few with access to formal education were encouraged to attend "special" schools, primarily youth with sensory or intellectual impairments, with other groups virtually ignored.

Thanks to the latest efforts, over the past five years, the enrolment rate of children and teenagers with special educational needs in compulsory schooling has reached 97 per cent, with more than 30,000 students with disabilities entering universities each year.

Meanwhile, a campaign has been underway to equip schools with assistive devices and adapt teaching materials.

According to data provided by Li Dongmei, vice president of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, by 2025 the per capita subsidy for students with disabilities attending compulsory schooling will exceed 7,000 yuan (around US$ 1,000) annually.

Those from disadvantaged families are entitled to 12 years of free education, from primary school to upper secondary school.

The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), launched in March of this year, puts further emphasis on these issues.

The goals set for the future include increasing the economic security of persons with disabilities, especially in rural areas; expanding community-based sports and cultural programmes; and using advanced technologies to improve the well-being of those in need of assistance.

RED LANTERNS IS THE ASIANEWS NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO CHINA. WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE IT EVERY THURSDAY? TO SUBSCRIBE, CLICK HERE.