One-Legged Chinese Teen Goes Viral for Basketball Skills with Wooden Crutch

A one-legged teenage boy from a mountainous village in southwestern China has gone viral on social media for excelling at basketball using a wooden crutch handmade by his father. The story of the 13-year-old boy, nicknamed Apei, was first shared by an influencer under the handle @awenzaidajiating in late May, garnering one million likes. On June 5, the boy finally was able to wear an artificial limb which was tailor-made in Shenzhen, also in southern China, and donated by the charity Shenzhen Project Care Foundation, according to the Shenzhen Press Group. Apei lives in a village in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province, which is one of the most impoverished regions in China. At the age of four, when he went alone to look for his mother who was doing farm work on the mountain, a big rock slid down and crushed his right leg to the extent that it had to be amputated. Apei said at first no children liked to play with him for fear of pushing him and making him fall down. He then became interested in playing basketball. He moves freely with the wooden crutch made by his father which is bound to his trousers.