Life is ever-changing, and no one can predict when disaster will strike and luck will fall again.
Cui Xianren, an accident left him physically disabled. With only the third grade of elementary school education, he practiced chalk calligraphy for 10 years. A photo from a netizen turned him from a wandering artist into a calligrapher. , Founder Font Library included his fonts, and the intellectual property fees allowed him to join the ranks of the rich.
An accident occurred and the mainstay of the family lost the ability to work
Cui Xianren was born in 1962 in Huiqi Manchu Town, Wangkui County, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province. Like most ordinary families, Although his life is not that rich, he still makes his family live a good life with his hard-working hands. However, a sudden disaster changed the family's original peaceful life.
One day in 1993, Cui Xianren needed to buy some things for his family. He was going to ride a tricycle to the town to purchase. Before setting off, he checked the tricycle and found that there was not much oil in the tank, so he started riding a tricycle from the house. Take out the diesel. The winter in Heilongjiang is very cold, and the diesel in the barrel has frozen.
Cui Xianren seemed a little anxious at this time. He only wanted to leave early and come back early, but he ignored the danger that was coming. In order to thaw the diesel quickly, he put the diesel barrel on the burning stove. As soon as the barrel was placed, he heard a loud bang, the oil barrel exploded, and a heat wave pushed Cui Xianren several meters away.
When Cui Xianren woke up, he was lying on a hospital bed with burns all over his body, with his face and hands being the most seriously injured. Cui Xianren was discharged from the hospital three months later, but he only suffered a lifelong disability. His hands were severely deformed, and only his index finger and ring finger could still move slightly.
Cui Xianren can no longer work, and his wife has suffered from lumbar disc herniation in her early years and cannot do heavy physical labor. The breadwinner of the family suddenly loses the ability to work. How will the family live in the future? Woolen cloth. The strong Cui Xianren did not complain about the problem with his hands, but was thinking about what else he could do to continue to support his family.
Due to the limited financial conditions of his family when he was a teenager, Cui Xianren dropped out of school after only reaching the third grade of elementary school. He did not have much cultural knowledge, let alone any skills. But when he was in school, his compositions and calligraphy were very good, and his teachers often used them for other students in the class to learn from. So Cui Xianren thought about whether he could practice calligraphy to break through his life difficulties.
After 10 years of practicing chalk calligraphy, he became an Internet celebrity begging for chalk.
Since then, Cui Xianren has started his calligraphy journey. But his fingers could no longer hold a pen or a brush, so he thought of using chalk as a writing tool. Holding the chalk with his index finger and ring finger could just control the strength of the pen.
Cui Xianren found a piece of plywood and applied a layer of black ink on it. This became his writing board. He used chalk to write and erase a word on the blackboard, practicing repeatedly. He always adheres to one belief: he must rely on his own skills to make money to support his family, and he must practice calligraphy that others can appreciate.
With this will, Cui Xianren spent more than ten hours every day practicing chalk calligraphy. This persistence lasted for 10 years. In 2004, he finally developed beautiful calligraphy. Cui Xianren could make money with his craft, so he decided to become a wandering artist.
On the streets of Yantai, people saw a man whose face and hands were severely burned, writing elegant words on a piece of black floor leather with a few colored chalks and two fingers. Font, this person is Cui Xianren. There are suitcases and paper tubes beside him. Passers-by put some change into the paper tubes from time to time, including 1 yuan, 5 yuan, and 10 yuan. Whenever passers-by give money, Cui Xianren Everyone will say "thank you".
A netizen named Cmyker took a photo of Cui Xianren begging with chalk characters on his mobile phone, posted it online, and called him the "Chalk Stranger." The photo was quickly forwarded on the Internet, with netizens marveling at Cui Xianren's ability to write well with just two fingers.
This homeless artist who became physically disabled due to an accident has become the focus of heated discussions on the Internet. At the same time, Cui Xianren and his characters also attracted the attention of Beijing Peking University Founder Electronics Co., Ltd., the largest provider of character library products in China, and his fate changed again.
Signed with Founder Company and eventually became a multi-millionaire
The person in charge of Founder Font Library believes that Cui Xianren’s self-created fonts are very distinctive, and if they are used in advertising or design It will be very practical and they want to acquire this unique font for development and reuse. But Cui Xianren wanders around, where can he find him?
On October 10, 2011, Founder Font Library’s official Weibo posted a message: Founder Company wanted to cooperate with Cui Xianren and include his fonts in Founder Font Library, and hoped that netizens would help them find this beggar. The Chalk Man.
Within a few days, netizens found Cui Xianren in Qingdao. At this time, he was kneeling on a piece of floor leather 10 meters long and 1 meter wide, concentrating on writing with colored chalk. Pedestrians passing by stopped in their hurry. They looked at this disabled man with white hair, facial burns, and twisted hands. They were shocked that he could write such good chalk calligraphy. From time to time, the crowd exclaimed "It's incredible." , "The handwriting is so good" and other sighing words.
On October 15, Cui Xianren signed the "Founder Font Library Commissioned Creation Agreement" with Peking University Founder Company, and his fonts will be officially included in the Founder Font Library.
In order to respect his originality, Founder Company also named the font after him, namely "Founder Xianren Simplified Chinese". Founder Company was impressed by Cui Xianren's perseverance and tenacity, and they decided that within 50 years of the development and listing of Founder Xianren Simplified Chinese, all profits generated would belong to Cui Xianren personally. At the same time, in order to ease the financial situation of Cui Xianren’s family, he was paid 50,000 yuan in advance.
In April 2013, Founder Company held a press conference to officially launch Founder Xianren Simplified Chinese, which was also the first Chinese character library from folk begging artists. Cui Xianren’s life also changed completely, from a A wandering beggar artist became a calligrapher.
Cui Xianren's fonts are very elegant. After re-creation and development by Founder Company, his fonts have been used in advertising design, magazine article titles, and classical furniture engravings. Founder Xianren Simplified Chinese has both a personal version and a commercial version. The copyright fees for the font allow Cui Xianren to earn millions every year. Now, the profit distribution amount he enjoys from font development has exceeded 10 million yuan. He has grown from a financially poor person. And eventually become rich.
But behind this wealth, it is his 10 years of hard work in chalk calligraphy that will produce great results in the future. It is difficult for an able-bodied person to persist in pursuing a goal for 10 years, let alone a disabled person. Cui Xianren’s perseverance is worth learning from.