Shortly before Christmas last year, one of Brazilian pianists Joao Carlos Martins invited his friends to a bar near his home. He wanted to show them the best gift he had received: a new pair of gloves. They are not just any gloves, however. The special bionic devices（仿生设备）let the 79-year-old pianist play with both hands for the first time in more than 20 years.

By his retirement（退休） last March, Martins had received 24 medical operations to try to reduce pain caused by a disease and from a series of accidents. Before the gloves, which were especially developed for him, Martins could only play songs slowly with his thumbs and, sometimes, his pointer fingers.

However, one designer believed Martins’ retirement had come too early. The designer, Ubirata Bizarro Costa, created special bionic gloves for Martins’ hands. The gloves help move his fingers up after they press（按） on the piano keys. Costa said he created early models based on images of Martins’ hands, but he said those models were not good. He then decided to tell Martins about his work. Costa and Martins then spent several months testing several kinds of models. Finally, the perfect model came in December, and cost only $125.

These days, Martins never takes off his new gloves, even when he goes to sleep. Martins said, “I have received more than 100 devices in the last 50 years. None of those devices worked well or long enough, but these gloves do.”

The new gloves have given Martins a new goal. He hopes to play the piano at New York’s Carnegie Hall in October. He is already set to conduct a concert celebrating the 60^th anniversary of his first appearance there.

Claire was set up to get her dream job working as a reporter at a popular news station. She went to visit her father before her interview. Her mother, who had always been her biggest supporter, had died a few years earlier.

As she visited her father, she told him about how nervous she was about the interview. Her father said, “You will do great because you are a lot like your mother, and your mother did great at everything.”

Claire pictured her mother, the most supportive person she had ever met, and had a realization. Was she really like her mother? She didn't think so. She was so focused on herself that she didn't even know about her family's struggles.

Suddenly, she felt ashamed. She left for the airport with a lot more to think about than her job. An hour before boarding, her sister called to wish her luck. She listened to her sister in a way she had never listened before. She asked her about her kids and her life. Her sister admitted that she wasn't doing very well. She was having a hard time.

Claire ended the conversation with her sister just before boarding started. She made a decision to be more like her mom and take care of what really matters in life. She spent the next few months living with her sister and helping her maintain her house and take care of the kids.

Claire found the courage to do what was right because of her mother. She realized that doing what was right brought on a type of happiness that looking out for herself could never bring. She never regretted her decision. Thanks to the decision, she and her sister grew closer than they had ever been. She learned a lot and felt much better when focusing on more than just herself. She easily got her dream job later that year.

Born with severe hearing loss, Li has found her way to communicate with the world through painting. Drawing was not only her way of coping with a lonely childhood, but has also opened for her a door to creativity and a way of expression. Moreover, painting led Li to meet her husband Hu Shiqun, who lost his hearing due to medication.

After graduation, Li got a job as a typist. Decent job as it was, Li was not happy because the previous bad feelings came back. In March 2016, Li quit the job and joined her husband’s company to be a wall painter.

From then on, in many parks and scenic spots in Hunan Province, the couple have created large-scale murals (壁画) and interactive pavement painting. Under their brushes, the pavements are transformed into fantastical scenes. For Li, their creations can make art more accessible to the public and become a way for them to connect with the world. Now Li has apprentices (学徒) and coaches more and more newcomers on how to create large-scale murals. Besides, Li and her husband have set up a studio in Shanghai to seek more business opportunities.

Although they are just a small number among the country’s 27 million hearing-impaired population, Li hopes that their stories can inspire more people facing similar battles to build their own careers and achieve their goals, regardless of how tough it may be.

According to Li, “Painting brushes can help me create a colorful world in my imagination, telling my thoughts on paper, instead of through voices. My husband and I want to introduce painting to more people like us, helping them to fight social prejudice that we can not fully participate in social activities.”