2018 Resources Room’s Night: Challenged Students Sing Out Their Lives

In the evening of November 27^th, the physically or mentally challenged students of Soochow University inspired some 200 participants of “The Resources Room’s Night” at Waishuangsi Campus. As the event marked its third year, these special but talented students shone off their spirit with solo singing, musical band performance and drama.

The night started with the show host requesting everyone on the spot to do some healthy exercise featuring the “rock-n’-roll version” of Soochow’s school anthem. It was followed by a grand robe ceremony, as part of the activities of the upcoming 2018 Soochow International Ultra-Marathon, that symbolized the passing down of their spirit of perseverance and endurance among all physically or mentally challenged student runners.

When the main show took stage, the performing students, including Bo-Hung Shen of the Chinese Department, Chun-Wei Fu of the Global Business Program, and Yu-Jyun Siao of the English Department, were all eager to make their artistic talents seen.

Ven-Chian Lo, who is visually impaired, and his guitar partner and instructor Lo Lin, carried out Catching the Light, a four-minute long guitar tune. “I think I spent efforts ten times as much as others in preparing this song. However, I’d like to accomplish something that others can, so that people would be more willing to understand the handicapped rather than being imparted by certain prejudice,” said Lo in the interview.

This year the Resources Room combined two concepts into the event: resource education and dream fulfilling. “Our primary goal is to involve the audience in the event and allow them to watch every challenged student breaking off their limit,” said Hsiang-Jung Chen, the director of the concert. “We also want to deliver the message of love and let the students know they can be the shining stars in the sky.”

“They express themselves with their lives instead of music. It’s only with the heart that one can see rightly." said President Wei-Ta Pan, hoping that every participant would learn the true meaning of life from these physically or mentally challenged students.

The audience well appreciated the effort of the performing students. "I felt a large amount of positive energy from every performer. They might act like us and make it look easy, but I can imagine how much harder they need to work than normal people in order to accomplish things like those,” said Zhi-Jie Liu, a student of Department of Psychology, who was amazed by almost every performance of this inspiring night.