Armless YNU graduate Yang Mengheng inspires the world

Yang Mengheng, a special and inspiring graduate of Yunnan University (YNU) recently sent his best wishes to his alma mater and urged the students there to pursue and realize their dreams.

Yang lost both arms at the age of six due to an accident with high-voltage electric shocks. But he vowed to overcome the massive setback and returned to school to study.

During his undergraduate years in Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong province, Yang wanted to inspire others – giving more than 300 motivational talks to more than 500,000 people.

What's more, Yang was invited onto China Central Television and Beijing TV to give talks.

In his senior year, Yang participated in an interview for graduate school at YNU, but he felt he did not perform well. Nonetheless, YNU gave him a chance and Yang became an English language student there with a literature major.

A proud Yang Mengheng poses for a photo at YNU. [Photo/WeChat Account of Yunnan University]

To help Yang in his daily life, YNU changed the existing bunk bed in his room to a single bed. He also started his own business while studying and YNU did not object.

"Once, I went on a business trip to Jiangxi province and missed several classes given by my teacher surnamed Wang. She called me and told me to study my major better," he said. Yang remembered Wang's kindness and that this was the first time she lost her temper.

Yang was overwhelmed when he was accepted by the prestigious Cambridge University in the United Kingdom – one of the world's top universities – in 2016. He received his master of philosophy in education from Cambridge University in 2018, and returned to Yunnan University to study until his graduation there in 2019.

Subsequently he went into business – founding Kunming Yuanmai Education Technology Co – and married his college sweetheart and now has a daughter.