Charity art show boosts profile of mentally disabled

[Photo provided to China Daily]

At the opening ceremony, Lu Fubin, vice-president of Baidu, noted that Baidu Tieba has about 100 online communities dedicated to people with mental or intellectual disabilities, with their subscribers reaching 10 million.

The online art show attracted the attention of more than 300,000 community members, Lu said, while the offline art exhibition is designed to extend the online charitable efforts to build a platform for the special group to demonstrate themselves and communicate with society.

In this way the public can better learn about their inner world, and accept them as members of our society, Lu said.

According to Gao Hua, program executive of WABC's Beijing office, the exhibition is also an effort to improve the quality of such groups' spiritual lives through culture and art.

Painting has proved helpful for improving their psychological state and mood, and thus art can be a practical auxiliary rehabilitation method, Gao suggested.