Nasutu (left) hugs a kind passerby
On October 16, as a cold wind blew, the small northern city of Tongliao seemed to have entered winter early. That afternoon, in front of the Oriental Shopping Plaza in Horqin District, the appearance of a young man wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt caught the attention of passersby. He was Nasutu from Tongliao, a rare disease patient. Since starting his “Hug 10,000 People While Hiking Around China” public welfare walk on June 15 from Shenzhen, he has become a hot topic on Weibo. So far, he has visited 23 cities and collected 3,648 hugs.
Tongliao is the 24th stop on his nationwide journey. In addition to traveling across the country, Nasutu goes out onto the streets in each city to “ask” for hugs, collecting 10,000 hugs for “porcelain dolls” (i.e., people with osteogenesis imperfecta), aiming to raise awareness and care for this special group.
That afternoon, since it wasn’t a weekend, there weren’t many pedestrians. The event didn’t start smoothly. At first, no one voluntarily hugged Nasutu. Just as everyone was getting a bit disappointed, a citizen saw the publicity and stepped forward to hug him. Then came the second, third, fourth… More and more citizens began to approach and hug Nasutu on their own. Within two hours, a total of 58 citizens had hugged Nasutu to support his campaign.
Yang Jiemin from Hohhot has been doing business in Tongliao for many years. He said that seeing how hard life is for people with disabilities made him want to contribute some love. He strongly supports the activity and hopes to have the opportunity to engage in public welfare work, helping people with disabilities overcome difficulties on their life journeys with confidence and feel the warmth of the big family of society.
Nasutu was born on July 8, 1987, into a farming family in Qianjin Sumu, Zhalute Banner, Tongliao City. Growing up listening to stories about Genghis Khan, he dreamed of traveling the world one day. At the age of 17, an incurable illness changed his fate. At first, he only felt severe pain in his back, but over time, the skeleton in his upper body began to shift, eventually forming a large protrusion on his back and causing complete numbness in his right leg. His family spent all their savings, yet Nasutu’s condition remained undiagnosed. Eventually, he decided to give up treatment and try to survive on his own abilities.
At first, he worked in Tongliao city, carrying steel bars at construction sites for a monthly wage of 600 yuan. Unable to bear the discrimination and ridicule from others, he quit his job and went to Beijing, hoping to find a place for himself in the big city. After arriving in Beijing, he worked as a waiter, dishwasher, security guard...
Nasutu endured a lot of hardship in Beijing but also received help from many kind-hearted people. This also inspired his desire to help others with his modest abilities. On April 14, 2010, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Upon hearing the news, he immediately quit his job and followed a rescue organization to the disaster area, staying there for six months.
After returning to Beijing, Nasutu found a job as a security guard at Beijing Institute of Technology. On April 20 of this year, upon learning about the Sichuan Ya’an earthquake, he once again resolutely quit his job and rushed to the disaster zone. With prior experience in earthquake relief, he and other volunteers went deep into the heavily affected area of Lushan to distribute supplies and provide emotional support. It wasn’t until late May that Nasutu finished his relief work and left Ya’an.
In July 2012, after returning to his hometown, Nasutu met Jiang Wenshan at Tongliao Railway Station—a man born without his left forearm—who was cycling 40,689 kilometers around China over eight months while collecting 31,000 handshakes from passersby.
Meeting Jiang Wenshan reignited the dream in Nasutu’s heart.
On June 15 of this year, Nasutu set off from Shenzhen with his backpack, beginning his dream public welfare journey. Along the way, he also aims to promote a public welfare organization that benefits rare disease patients—“Porcelain Dolls”—to help more people understand and care for those with rare diseases. He plans to spend two years visiting 95 cities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, covering a total distance of approximately 38,789 kilometers.
Nasutu said: “I hope that by collecting hugs, we can eliminate discrimination against people with rare diseases and help us gain respect as well.”
In addition, he raises travel funds by selling dreams on Taobao—offering free Mongolian language lessons along the way and selling “courage” for three yuan per kilometer on the platform. Nasutu also admitted that the journey hasn’t been smooth: “Some people don’t understand my actions, and all my funding comes from the ‘bravery cards’ purchased on Taobao. So far, someone has bought 2,700 kilometers worth of my courage. When I really have no money, I can only sell postcards from a street stall.”
Of course, besides the hardships, there has been even more inspiration along the way. Nasutu said that many kind-hearted people have helped him selflessly, giving him great encouragement. “Some kind people gave me rides, and many civil organizations helped me collect hugs.” It is understood that in every city he visits, Nasutu helps the “Porcelain Dolls” collect hugs in busy areas, and he also joins local public welfare organizations to volunteer.
On September 28, Nasutu returned to his hometown in Qianjin Sumu, Zhalute Banner, Tongliao City from Shenyang. After helping with the autumn harvest, he arrived in Horqin District on October 15. When he got off the train at the railway station, he met two “travelers”—21-year-old Zhang Xu from Tangshan and 20-year-old Wang Shuo from Guangxi. The two young men decided to join Nasutu in this public welfare cause. Nasutu said that his next stop is Changchun. He believes more volunteers will join, and he is confident that more and more people will dedicate their love to people with disabilities.