Piano player with no arms: toast to your life (2)

One whole chapter is devoted to his early experiences receiving water therapy to aid his recovery. He was overwhelmed by the water the first time he was taken to the swimming pool.

"The shallowest water area was only 1 meter, and by then I was already 1.3 meters high. What was there to be afraid of?" Liu jokes in the book, and he goes on to describe his method of overcoming fear by encouraging himself.

Many years after starting water therapy, which he developed into a regular exercise, he won several championships in national swimming contests for the disabled.

Such self-encouragement can be seen throughout the book. His mother once tried to send him to a music school to receive a formal education, but was humiliated and hurt by the school headmaster's blunt refusal. He comforted his angry mother, telling her that self-teaching could also be good for him.

"There is no easy path to success for anyone, particularly for me," Liu wrote.

Music was something he "pursued with all his heart," and he describes piano as something that healed his soul. He began to teach himself to play piano at the age of 18, sitting in front of the black and white keys for more than seven hours a day.

At first, his toes hurt badly, and though it was agonizing to walk, he never thought of giving up. "I am addicted to it," he writes, "and there's definitely no way to quit."

Actress Ni Ping is another reader moved by Liu who appreciates his tenacious attitude toward achieving dreams. She bought a copy of Toast to Your Life at Liu's book launch in Shanghai earlier this month, saying that she would buy more to give to loved ones, including her son, and ask them to "read the story with your heart."

"For someone like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death. The other was to struggle without the use of my arms to live an outstanding life," Liu told the judges on China's Got Talent, a partial transcript of which is included in his book.

Some regard this as "too extreme an attitude toward life," judging that Liu might have put too much pressure on himself. He replies in his book, "I chose to live, and I have the right to live an outstanding life."