"Borderline intellectuals" take multiple professional certificates

Self-reliance does not want to be a burden on society

"Hello, I'm Max Lee, a mentally disabled young man." In the video, Li Shicheng is used to introducing himself like this. In his view, "intellectual disability" is not a defect, but a life experience, and he hopes that every person with intellectual disabilities can see themselves in this way. As the "second generation of demolition", Li Shicheng had a reason to "lie flat", but he did not do this. After graduating from special school, he worked as a waiter, customer service, delivery and takeaway, and hit a wall everywhere. In order to "reconcile" with his mentally disabled identity, he began to post videos, and he was unexpectedly angry.

Now, Li Shicheng has decided to use his traffic to attract more social attention, and plans to save money to make a documentary documentary documenting the current situation of China's intellectual disability.

"Marginal intelligence" is evaluated by many as a "social cow"

In interviews, Li Shicheng can talk eloquently and joke with reporters from time to time. Many people who have contacted him do not believe that he has intellectual disabilities, and more people evaluate him as a "social cow".

In order to prove himself, Li Shicheng often had to show his disability certificate on the Internet. In a video, Li Shicheng appeared at the same time as two other people with intellectual disabilities, "Today we have three kinds of intellectual disabilities here, I want to tell you that there are different levels of intellectual disabilities, and people with intellectual disabilities can also do what they can." ”

From a medical point of view, it is normal for the IQ to be above 85, and Li Shicheng's IQ is 80, because of the lack of this 5, Li Shicheng has been labeled as "mentally retarded" since he was a child. And his intellectual problems are not born, but destiny. At birth, Li Shicheng was strangled by the umbilical cord, and his brain was deprived of oxygen and could not breathe. The doctor thought he was a dead baby, and just as the nurse was about to dispose of the "remains", he found that his fingers moved, and Li Shicheng only then picked up a small life.

Life was picked up, but left disabled. Xiao Li Shicheng's development has always been slower than that of his peers, and at first his family did not realize that it was an intellectual problem, and doctors also said that it was developmental delay. When he reached school age, Li Shicheng's mathematics became a "dead hole", and the addition and subtraction method was not correct, and he learned that Li Shicheng was a marginal intellectual person after testing his intelligence in the hospital.

Eight-year-old Li Shicheng was asked to attend classes and was sent to a special education school after junior high school. Just because he was labeled as "mentally retarded", Li Shicheng was bullied. The people around him were not friendly to him, thinking that he could not do anything in his life, but Li Shicheng did not think so. After graduating from junior high school, he was sent to a special vocational and technical school, where Li Shicheng spent the happiest period of time, was not bullied, and could study steadily. Although I learned slowly, I still got professional certificates such as Western-style pastry chef intermediate, Chinese cook's elementary, and Chinese-style pastry chef elementary.

I don't want to be a burden on society and I don't want to drag my parents down

Near graduation, the teacher of the special education school took the students to the back kitchen of the bakery for internship, and many students stopped working one after another, but Li Shicheng persevered. After graduating, he went to work as a waiter in a restaurant, where his job was to collect garbage every day. But even with such work, he was squeezed out by employees with normal intelligence. He then worked as a telephone customer service for a month and worked at an ice cream parlor, but was quickly fired. Because the leader told him to know all the names and recipes of English ice cream, he couldn't learn it.

Through the introduction of relatives, Li Shicheng went to work in a milk tea shop. At that time, the teacher told him that the policy that people with intellectual disabilities could study higher education came out, and Li Shicheng went to Shanghai Changning District Amateur University to study hotel management. After graduating from junior college, Li Shicheng went to the hotel to apply for a chef, and the head chef told him, you have a chef certificate, we welcome you. But you are mentally retarded, and if something happens, we can't afford it. Li Shicheng felt that the other party was very honest and understood, so he left on his own.

Li Shicheng himself was born in a working family, his father was a bus driver, his mother was an ordinary worker, and his family was not rich. But the family has experienced two demolitions, the first in 2001 and the second in 2017, and two demolitions have resulted in two houses, both in Shanghai, where land is at a premium. According to Li Shicheng's estimates, the total price of the two houses can be as low as more than 1400 million, and a lot of rent can be collected every month. With extra income at home and repeated discrimination against working outside the home, Li Shicheng could have chosen to "lie flat" as a matter of course, but he always remembered the words of the special education teacher, "People with intellectual disabilities are also people, they must also work, they must support themselves, and they should not be looked down upon." ”

"The house and rent are my parents' own, what does it have to do with me? I'm going to be self-reliant, I'm always going to find something to do, and I can do it, so why not? "Li Shicheng doesn't want to be a burden on society, and he doesn't want to drag down his parents.

We hope to be a bridge between people with mental disabilities and the general public

Li Shicheng once had a puzzle, if he did not work, he would be said to be a "waste person" by the people around him, and if he went out to work, he would always be disliked, so he simply registered a video account on the Internet, and each video began with "I am Max Li, a mentally disabled young man". His traffic is getting bigger and bigger, and his fans are getting bigger and bigger, but this also brings new troubles to Li Shicheng.

Some people saw media reports that he was "second generation" and questioned that he was delivering food for show. As a result, the delivery company politely refused to allow him to continue working on the grounds that he was famous and that it would not be good if he encountered an accident.

At present, Li Shicheng's income is only brought by the traffic of the online platform, although there are some advertising fees and traffic fees, but it is only a few hundred yuan.

Now, through his own videos, all walks of life have paid more attention to the group of people with intellectual disabilities, which makes Li Shicheng feel very meaningful, but criticism has followed. For example, when Li Shicheng introduces his alma mater in the video, some people will say that he advertises his alma mater.

Later, some social worker groups and non-profit organizations dedicated to the disabled approached him and gave him psychological counseling, hoping that he could become a positive model and let all mentally disabled people and their families see hope. Many parents came to him for help and confided in him about their pain, and Li Shicheng persuaded them not to give up hope easily.

Li Shicheng said that now he wants to put all his energy on the Internet and truly become a bridge between people with mental disabilities and the general public. He also plans to go out of Shanghai for a while and visit various places to photograph the lives of people with mental disabilities and the current situation of social workers and non-profit organizations. (Beijing Youth Daily / Zhang Ziyuan, reporter of this newspaper)