Doing the 'write' thing

Courage, talent and determination help award-winning author to overcome challenges

"When I was 8, a doctor predicted that I wouldn't live past 20. But now I'm here, at 29, happy with my life," says Ma Jun, the youngest laureate of this year's Junma Awards for Ethnic Literature in the prose category. Ma is not only talented but determined and has overcome many obstacles in his life.

Ma, who uses a wheelchair, was born in 1995 in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. His winning piece is his debut prose collection, Qing Bai Shijie (The Green and White Stone Steps), which he wrote under the pen name Liu Kexing. The book is divided into five parts, depicting his life experiences: growing up, daily life, love and aspirations, emotions and reflections.

The opening chapter, also titled Qing Bai Shijie, delves into Ma's childhood memories. At birth, his parents noticed something unusual — his limbs were weak, and he couldn't move or stand without help. His health condition isolated him from other children. While his peers ran and played, Ma could only sit on the stone steps, watching in frustration and sadness. This vivid memory has stayed with him, and it became the title of his first officially published prose piece and the entire book.