Person | Xiao Yong

Editor's note: Former teen runaway Xiao Yong, now 20, lived on the streets of Kunming until he was placed in a foster family by the Yunnan Jiaxin Children Assistance Center. He spoke on the condition he could use an alias.

My father was a welder in a factory, and I actually had a happy childhood until I was 10. I remember he started to drink liquor like it was water, and whenever he got drunk he would beat my mother and me with anything he could get his hands on. My mother divorced him a year later.

When my father got custody, I simply became his punching bag, so I ran away. At the time, I was 13. It felt like I was escaping from hell.

I ended up on the streets for about two years. In that time, I picked up many "skills" to survive, such as learning how to pick pockets and steal bikes without getting caught.

One day I went to a garbage collection station to sell cans and glass bottles that I'd gathered, and the owner told me he knew an organization that helped street children like me. I had become tired of sleeping under bridges and getting beaten up whenever I was caught pilfering, but I was doubtful about what he said. Still, I decided to give it a try. I thought to myself, what could be worse than this?

The guy from the recycling station took me to the Yunnan Jiaxin Children Assistance Center. I quickly saw that the teachers there were kind.

My father died of alcoholism about three months after I went to the center. My mother had already remarried, so there was no chance of living with her.

The center arranged for me to live with a foster family and helped me return to school. I graduated from a vocational school in 2012 and started working as a piano tuner and salesman at a musical instrument store soon after.

I joined a band, Jiabailie, two years ago and play lead guitar. I'm also learning about composition and hope one day to go to Beijing with my band.

In the end, I treasure the experience of living on the streets because that ordeal gave me the courage to overcome any difficulty in life.

Xiao Yong was talking to China Daily reporter He Dan.

(China Daily 01/15/2013 page7)