In 1997, Liu Fang was teaching Chinese language in a middle school in Guizhou province, and was on path she picked for herself. Everything went well until one day the doctor told her that a disease would slowly lead to her loss of sight.
She had no idea about how to continue with her life and work. At that time, most students in Liu's class were "left behind" at home, as their parents tried to make a living by working in big cities.
As a warm-hearted person, Liu decided that she would continue teaching with her remaining sight as if nothing happened. Her students and co-workers didn't realize that something was wrong with her as she knew the contents of the textbooks well and always had her teaching plans ready.
In 2006, Liu was completely blind. Having learned to deal with difficulties in life and work over 10 years of losing sight, she decided to accept her situation. Though it was the biggest regret in her life that she could not continue teaching Chinese, she chose to become a psychological counselor (心理咨询师) in school in
2007. To get more people to realize the importance of psychological health education among children, especially in poor areas, Liu has many ways of providing psychological counseling, from giving speeches, holding radio programs to writing books with the help of software (软件). Now her audience has expanded to teachers and parents.
A big difference between a Chinese language teacher and a psychological counselor is that she no longer is the one talking more, but rather listening, she said.