Life by a thousand cuts

Updated: 2013-07-03 09:56

By Tang Zhe (China Daily)

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Life by a thousand cuts

Zhang Yonghong and Zhang Rui on the Beijing streets. Zhang Rui, a university graduate, volunteers to help Zhang Yonghong sell the paper-cuts.

"She said the life was too hard for her and ran off with another man, but I can't give up on my child," Zhang says.

Life by a thousand cuts

The fragile father had to send his girl back to his hometown to be taken care of by his parents after his wife left.

"My 6-year-old daughter has fractured bones more than a dozen times. No school accepts her because she is too fragile and the schools are afraid of taking the responsibility," he says.

With a little help from government, Zhang says he was lucky to meet some kindhearted people in Beijing.

A Hong Kong businessman donated 60,000 yuan to him last year to treat the girl and start a small studio on Qiangulouyuan, a small lane off the capital's busy Nanluoguxiang, a famous hutong that attracts lots of tourists over holidays.

Lu Minchou, who works as a cleaner in a nearby hotel, volunteered to help Zhang with cooking and housework every day after work, to spare him the cost of hiring a nurse.

Zhang Rui, a university graduate, spends most of her time helping Zhang sell the paper-cuts, translating the stories the paper-cuts tell to English and selling the works on the roadside of Nanluoguxiang.

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Life by a thousand cuts

Life by a thousand cuts

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