BEIJING: A 24-year-old Chinese woman keeps managing to shine on stage despite wearing a patch and a mask after she lost an eye and her left upper jaw to cancer.
Han Yifei, from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, has moved many people online and garnered over 7,000 followers on a social media platform with her beautiful ballroom dancing.
In videos she uploaded, she always wears an eye patch and sometimes a mask.
Han lost part of her jaw and the vision in her left eye to osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
She felt discomfort in her gum in 2019 as a senior secondary school graduate.
The local hospital told her it was no big deal, and she was also successfully accepted as a dance performance major at the Nanjing University of the Arts.
However, just a few days before the enrolment, her left cheek swelled and she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her left upper jaw in Beijing. The doctor asked her to have the tumour removed immediately and that there was a risk of recurrence.
Han said her mind went blank. She had not even experienced the university life she had been looking forward to.
In the following two years, Han experienced chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The doctor removed her left upper jaw and implanted titanium mesh to support her face and eyeball.
Soon, she was told that the cancer had returned. She eventually went blind in her left eye. The muscle on the left of her face ulcerated and the doctor transplanted tissue from her lower belly and her knees to her face.
The doctors said she might not be able to walk normally, let alone dance.
Han began learning dancing at the age of four, and the ballroom style at eight. She said ballroom dancing is her life.
Being raised with her younger brother in a single-parent family, Han’s mother, surnamed Liu, had been supportive of her dancing dream. After she became ill, her mother never gave up on her.
Liu took her to hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai, sold their flat and borrowed money to pay for the expensive treatment.
Han said her mother ate only rice porridge herself, but provided her with nutritious food. She also stayed up all night to look after her after surgeries.
Han also once thought of giving up because she did not want to burden her family, but her mother encouraged her to persist.
Han told the SCMP that in one occasion she had a heavy bleeding at midnight, and her mother carried her on her back and climbed down five stairs. At the hospital, she screamed out for doctors. Han’s mind went blurry, but she said she felt her mother’s spirit.
Despite her illness relapsing four times in five years, and that she is still not fully recovered now, she did not want to give up again.
When she got better, she returned to school after recovery and persisted with rehabilitation.
Slowly, she overcame the weak muscles in her body and the lack of balance due to her loss of vision, and was able to walk, run, and dance and shine on stage.
Han said she felt uncomfortable sitting on or lying in bed. She told the SCMP that it was only when she was immersed in dancing that she “felt no pain”.
She still sometimes falls and faints in the ballroom. When she does, she just rests on the dance floor for a while, before continuing her practice.
Han made her first public performance in Nanjing in August 2024, where she performed an original dance inspired by her own experience.
Her dance has moved many online. She also brought her performance to other parts of China, and even Malaysia.
Han said she was especially thankful to her mother.
“She is an ordinary woman, always saying she has nothing to give me, but has given her everything to me,” said Han.
Speaking of her dream, Han told the SCMP that she wanted to mostly “live in the moment”.
Han said she could not dance for more than an hour on the days when she feels better, so she did not plan to become a professional dancer or dance teacher.
Instead, she wants to be an influencer, keep posting her dancing videos and make money from the job to help out her family.
“My body remembers all the scars. I let each scar be the power behind my next move,” Han said.
“You are the strongest woman I have ever seen. Your future is bright and we will always be here for you,” one supporter told Han.
“She is a true dancer who dances not with just skill, but her life,” said another. - South China Morning Post
