Jiang Nan walks with a limp but never thought of herself as disabled growing up in her small, two-room courtyard home in a bustling neighbourhood in the centre of Beijing.
Despite her family's modest circumstances, the shy, intelligent, 21-year-old worked hard at school and was always top of her class.
One of Nan's legs is two inches shorter than the other due to an accident when she was eight years old. As a result Nan carries a "deformity card". She is now one of millions in China suffering third-level education discrimination because she has a physical handicap.
Nan's ambition, and that of her parents, is to go to university to get a degree. She hoped to be admitted to the Beijing Mechanical and Industrial Institute to study electronics. Nan scored 500 points in the nationwide college entrance exams in July, 12 points higher than the admission requirement for the institute.
On August 16th she attended an interview at the college. Nan was asked to walk before the interview board. She was told they would admit her, but because of her disability she would not get a degree. Electronics, they said, would not suit her condition, and she had to change to Industrial Design. They would only give her a certificate of graduation at the end of her studies.
Every July millions of students in China sit compulsory medical tests ahead of university entrance exams. For the first time this year blood tests were introduced. Ministry of Education guidelines on the physical standard for higher education enrolment stipulate that students with minor disabilities should be barred from studying certain subjects.
Some conditions, such as cancer, TB, high blood pressure, mental disorder or epilepsy history, can debar a student from even being enrolled in a university. Students with colour blindness are not allowed to study photography, applied psychology, painting, animation, applied physics, astronomy or geology.
People whose legs differ in length by more than 5 cm, such as Nan's, or who have a spinal curvature of more than 4 cm, are barred from courses such as marine science, agricultural studies, forensic medicine, civil engineering and geology.
Although China has laws against discrimination, bias against disabled people runs deep. The laws are bypassed by policies that allow schools and companies to reject candidates they deem physically unsuitable.
Thousands of deformed babies are abandoned in China every year. Some job ads specify qualities such as height, weight and age. Schools all emphasise moral, intellectual and physical development. Nan and her family are devastated at her rejection for a degree. Speaking from her home yesterday, she broke down and cried.
"I always considered myself equal to everyone else, despite my leg. There is nothing I could not do as far as my college work is concerned that other students can't do.
"I would like the Premier, Zhu Rongji, to do all he can to change this situation. My life is being ruined by this," said Nan, an only child.
The Beijing Mechanical and Industrial Institute told The Irish Times yesterday there was no one available to comment. It is, however, negotiating with the family and trying to come to some compromise. But Nan said there was no compromising as far as the degree was concerned.
The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper has reported that the dozens of universities in the Chinese capital have altogether enrolled only 236 students with any kind of a disability in the last five years. There are 60 million disabled in China.
The official People's Daily newspaper recently acknowledged the problem of discrimination against the handicapped and said the State Council had pledged to improve college access for the disabled in the next five years. But that might be too late for Nan, and the thousands of other hopefuls like her who would love to be starting college this week.