The angels on silent isolation
Autism is called 自闭症 (Zi Bi Zheng) in China. It is considered as a type of mental disability. There is no diagnosis of autism in China until 1986, which is about 40 years late comparing to international society. Even by far, few doctors or experts in China are able to diagnose autism expertly.
According to WHO statistics, there are around 600,000 to 1.8 million children with autism in China. But some scholars believe that the number might be from 1.5 to 7.8 million.
In China, most of autistic children cannot get support from the government. There are no special schools for artistic children in China yet. Some autistic parents choose to send their children to autism center run by private organization for daily treatment and recovery. Most of them were established by autistic parents independently.
I have spent three years to document the life of autistic children in China through both photo and video. Because discrimination to autistic people in Chinese society still exists, autistic people, who cannot fully recover, live in the shadow of society. That is why it is hard to find autistic adult in China. Most of parents who have autistic children will give up treatment due to social pressure and will not allow their children to go outside.
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