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Jordan Gilmer has a degenerative condition that eventually will leave him completely blind. But as a child, his teachers did not emphasize Braille, the system of reading in which a series of raised dots signify letters of the alphabet.

Instead, they insisted he use what little vision he had to read print. By the third grade, he was falling behind in his schoolwork.

“They gave him Braille instruction, but they didn’t tell us how to get Braille books, and they didn’t want him using it during the day,” said Jordan’s mother, Carrie Gilmer of Minneapolis. Teachers said Braille would be “a thing he uses way off in the far distant future, and don’t worry about it.”

That experience is common: Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States read Braille, and just 10 percent of blind children are learning it, according to a report to be released Thursday by the National Federation of the Blind.

By comparison, at the height of its use in the 1950s, more than half the nation’s blind children were learning Braille. Today Braille is considered by many to be too difficult, too outdated, a last resort.

Instead, teachers ask students to rely on audio texts, voice-recognition software or other technology. And teachers who know Braille often must shuttle between schools, resulting in haphazard instruction, the report says.

“You can find good teachers of the blind in America, but you can’t find good programs,” said Marc Maurer, the group’s president. “There is not a commitment to this population that is at all significant almost anywhere.”

Using technology as a substitute for Braille leaves blind people illiterate, the federation said, citing studies that show blind people who know Braille are more likely to earn advanced degrees, find good jobs and live independently.

“It’s really sad that so many kids are being shortchanged,” said Debby Brackett of Stuart, Fla., who pressured schools to provide capable Braille teachers for her 12-year-old daughter, Winona.

One study found that 44 percent of participants who grew up reading Braille were unemployed, compared with 77 percent for those who relied on print. Overall, blind adults face 70 percent unemployment.

The federation’s report pulled together existing research on Braille literacy, and its authors acknowledge that not enough research has been done. The 10 percent figure comes from federal statistics gathered by the American Printing House for the Blind, a company that develops products for the visually impaired.

The federation also did some original research, including a survey of 500 people that found the ability to read Braille correlated with higher levels of education, a higher likelihood of employment and higher income.

The report coincides with the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, the Frenchman who invented the Braille code as a teenager. Resistance to his system was immediate; at one point, the director of Braille’s school burned the books he and his classmates had transcribed. The school did not want its blind students becoming too independent; it made money by selling crafts they produced.

The system caught on, but began declining in the 1960s along with the widespread integration of blind children into public schools. It has continued with the advent of technology that some believe makes Braille obsolete.

“Back in about 1970 or so, I was heading to college, and somebody said to me, ‘Now that you’ve got the tape recorder, everything will be all right. In the early 1980s, somebody else said, ‘Now that you’ve got a talking computer, everything will be all right,’” said Marc Maurer, president of the federation.

“They were both wrong. And the current technology isn’t going to make everything all right unless I know how to put my hands on a page that has words on it and read them.”

Audio books are no substitute, said Carlton Walker, an attorney and the mother of a legally blind girl from McConnellsburg, Pa. Walker once met a blind teenager who had only listened to audio books; the teen was shocked to discover that “Once upon a time” was four separate words.

Walker also had to lobby teachers to provide Braille for her 8-year-old daughter, Anna, instead of just large-print books.

“At 3 years old, Anna could compete with very large letters. When you get older, you can’t compete,” Walker said. She once asked a teacher, “‘What are you going to do when she’s reading Dickens?’ She said, ‘Well, we’ll just go to audio then.’

“If that were good enough for everybody, why do we spend millions of dollars teaching people to read?”

Gilmer, now an 18-year-old aspiring lawyer, worked on his Braille in a summer program when he was in middle school and can now read 125 words a minute, up from his previously rate, an excruciatingly slow 20 words a minute.

“Just try it,” Carrie Gilmer said. “Go get a paragraph, get a stopwatch and try to read 20 words a minute. Try and read that slow and see how frustrating it is.”

Fluent Braille readers can read 200 words a minute or more, the federation says.

Carrie Gilmer is president of a parents’ group within the federation for the blind. She believes poor or haphazard instruction is largely responsible for the decline in Braille literacy, but she says sometimes teachers push Braille only to meet resistance from parents.

“They’re afraid of their child looking blind, not fitting in,” Gilmer said.

The report outlines ambitious goals for reversing the trend, including lobbying all 50 states to require teachers of blind children to be certified in Braille instruction by 2015. But its immediate goal is to simply make people aware that there’s no substitute for Braille. It’s not just a tool to help people function — it can bring joy, Maurer said.

“The concept of reading Braille for fun is a thing that lots of people don’t know,” Maurer said. “And yet I do this every day. I love the beautiful, orderly lines of words that convey a different idea that can stimulate me or make me excited or sa
d. … This is what we’re trying to convey.”

Chinese shares were 1.24 percent down by midday Tuesday, as profit-taking emerged following an overnight slump in US stocks, dealers said.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A and B shares, was 31.82 points lower at 2,525.64.

“Today’s correction is mostly triggered by overseas markets, so it will not hurt the general upward trend in the local market as investors hope for economic recovery,” Central China Securities’ Zhang Gang told Dow Jones Newswires.

The key index has risen nearly 40 percent since the beginning of this year with the market buoyed by investor optimism that Beijing will steer the economy out of the financial crisis.

The Shanghai A-share index fell 33.43 points, or 1.25 percent, to 2,651.08, while the Shenzhen A-share index lost 11.92 points, or 1.31 percent, to 898.58.

Chinese firms have started a fresh round of hiring, especially for management level position, as part of the efforts to cash in on the economic recovery. However, most of these firms are still finding it hard to get the right candidates for the posts, said employment service providers.

Companies from three industries — real estate, hi-tech and retailing — are at the forefront of the current round of hiring, they said.

According to Wang Shangfeng, general manager of Gold Elite, a major Chinese job hunter, the past few months have been the worst ever for the company.

“Demand (from clients) for new labor shrank overnight (since the financial crisis broke out). Some were watching, like private owned companies, although they still had demand. Others, especially international companies, stopped hiring,” he told China Daily.

But since early June, “we have started to see light at the end of the tunnel, and business is now improving”, he said.

Gold Elite is not alone. DoWelljoin Hunter, another employment service provider, is also feeling much better now. “With the nation’s economy showing signs of recovery, many of our clients have come back to us for new hires last month,” said Bao Changming, partner of DoWellJoin.

The company’s business has grown by 40 percent last month compared with the previous months, even higher than a year earlier, Bao said.

The corporate recruitment turnaround corresponds to a talent shortage survey forecast by Manpower. The leading global employment service provider said yesterday that there is a “growing demand for high-level staff and management” as companies are placing more emphasis on “finding and keeping core talent” to better prepare for the economic recovery.

“Foreign companies are seeking local managers, while domestic counterparts are exploring business diversification and overseas expansion,” it said.

The government’s preferential policies given to the real estate sector seem to have paid off with property sales improving, while the 4-trillion-yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package has stimulated domestic consumption for everything from food to cars.

However, companies in China are still finding it difficult to get the right candidates for the wanted positions, said the Manpower survey.

That is because “they are looking for people with not only degrees, but also many other factors like right managerial skills, overseas experience and probably knowledge about mergers and acquisitions,” said Robin Zhu, PR manager, Manpower.

According to the Manpower survey, 15 percent of the employers are struggling to fill up positions. The top three jobs that they are having difficulties to fill up this year are technicians, management or executives and sales representatives.

“After having been hurt by the financial crisis, companies are now more careful, lifting their expectations and requirements on recruitment,” said Bao.

Take real estate as an example. Leading developers like Hopson Development and China Resources Land, have sought DoWellJoin’s help to find brand managers to promote brand awareness, said Bao.

This is the fourth year that Manpower came out with its survey and it interviewed nearly 4,097 Chinese companies.

The 15th summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) opened here Wednesday, seeking more solidarity among developing countries to tackle major international and regional issues including the ongoing world financial crisis.

Cuban President Raul Castro, chairperson of the 14th NAM summit, declared the opening of the 15th summit.

He proposed the summit to observe one minute of silence in memory of the NAM leaders who had passed away since the 14th summit.

During his speech, Castro said NAM has the conviction that all countries in the world should search for effective and justified measures to tackle the current financial crisis.

“The current crisis has originated from rich countries due to their unbalanced and unjust international economic system. We call for the renewal of the international financial system, based on the real participation of the developing nations,” he said.

After the speech, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was elected by acclamation as chairperson of the 15th NAM summit.

Mubarak appealed for the construction of a new international political, economic and trade system, which is more balanced and equitable.

“This summit is a good opportunity for dialogue,” he said, adding that NAM members should make use of this summit to boost solidarity.

In his speech at the summit opening session, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “It is abundantly clear that no country, regardless of size or resources, can solve problems alone. That raises the stakes and the space for the Non-Aligned Movement to shape a better world.”

“The NAM’s long-standing commitment to development and social justice also resonates today as the world faces a severe economic and financial crisis,” he said.

“We must counter this trend. Truly free and fair trade is crucial to stimulating recovery and spurring growth,” he added.

Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez and Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov delivered speeches respectively on behalf of the Group of77 and China, the African region, the Asian region, the Latin American and the Caribbean region, and the European region.

During the two-day summit, leaders of over 100 NAM member countries or their representatives will focus their debate on the summit theme of International Solidarity for Peace and Development.

They are expected to discuss hotspot topics such as the global financial crisis, climate change, the Mideast peace process, food security, energy and nuclear issues.

The leaders are also scheduled to sign the summit’s Final Document and Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration, and approve the movement’s strategy and action plan for the future three years.

Founded in September 1961, NAM now groups 118 member states, 16 observer countries and 9 observer organizations.

The movement, which represents nearly two-thirds of UN member countries and comprises 55 percent of the world population, focuses on striving for interests of developing countries all over the world.

Forty years after the first moon landing on July 20, 1969, SPACE.com asked Apollo astronauts and leaders of the space community to ponder the past, present and future. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of PBS’s television series NOVA scienceNOW and the new StarTalk radio show, worries that Americans view spaceflight as a luxury rather than a fundamental science driver:

SPACE.com: Do you see a big difference between the public’s involvement and interest in the space program back in the 1960s as compared to today?

Tyson: Back then, there was a keen awareness expressed by the public as well as by our lawmakers in Washington of the correspondence between creative investments in science and technology and our self image as scientific and technological leaders of the world. There was also an awareness of the role that those investments would play in our economic growth.

One of my worries in recent years has been the loss of that awareness. That absence of awareness is catching up, and it’s holding us back while other nations are fully aware of this correspondence.

The trend lines in research and innovation look good for places such as India and China and less good for America as we go forward. So even if you’re not enchanted by the prospect of cosmic discovery, the prospect of dying poor may be what it takes to understand the role of this adventure in the future of the natural world in which we live.

S: Do you think the public undervalues space exploration now?

T: Too many people view it as a luxury rather than as a fundamental driver to stimulate interest in science to everyone in the educational pipeline. It’s vital to our prosperity and security.

S: Can the U.S. recover its status as a scientific leader?

T: While we may lose track of certain goals intermittently throughout the decades, I think we as a nation can be nimble when we need to be. All the buzz today is on the need for science literacy. That is on the agenda in ways it hasn’t been in previous decades.

There is a growing awareness that we’re losing our technological competitive edge. I think there’s an awareness that we’re losing our leadership, and that maybe our self image over the past several decades has been a little bit delusional. We tell ourselves we are leaders, and if you tell yourself enough you start to believe it.

S: Is part of the public apathy toward space exploration now because we don’t have a goal as exciting as being the first nation to land on the moon?

T: There are countless space activities that would be no less exciting than the moon missions were, I have no doubt. The search for life on Mars, for example. We have some asteroids coming our way, why don’t we deflect them?

It’s like building a house in the middle of a huge continent, and then going into the backyard and saying, ‘There’s nothing more exciting than this. I’m done. I see stuff out there, but that’s not going to be as interesting as this boulder right here.’

I can’t think that way. I can’t think that leaving Earth once is enough. How shortsighted would that be? We’ve never been that shortsighted before.

So I believe that the manned space program can engage the public by advancing the space frontier. Every next mission takes you farther out in space than you were before, either technologically or in terms of distance. For example the Gemini launches - none of them left Earth orbit but each was more ambitious. Each mission was something the press could talk about.

When you don’t advance a frontier how could you possibly expect the public to be interested?

S: Were you inspired to pursue science at all because of the Apollo missions?

T: No, actually. My interest in the space program has a certain purity to it because I recognize the romance of it but I was never seduced by it. That allowed me to view it through a more purely scientific lens. My interest in space while in school came about through my scientific activities. (Editor’s note: Tyson is the also director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City).

S: What do you think of NASA’s current plans for manned spaceflight?

T: It looks pretty clear that the budget is not commensurate with expectations on NASA.

Either the portfolio must be tuned down or the budget is raised, or both. But something has to happen for NASA to go places.

I agree that we should go back to the moon and on to Mars. We should treat all objects in the solar system, including comets and asteroids, as exploration targets.

It is very possible that it can happen in my lifetime and I think it should. It’s a matter of aligning the technological and political funding pistons to fire in harmony with each other. When they all fire together you can accomplish great things.

S: Do you think the current economic downturn presents a major roadblock to aligning those pistons?

T: It’s not as though we didn’t have problems before. It’s not as though the ’60s was some tranquil time of prosperity. One could argue it was one of the most troublesome decades in the history of the country, yet it was in that decade that we went to the moon.

As important as the civil rights movement was, I think what will rise to the top is that we left Earth in that time.

China’s economic growth rate shot up in the second quarter fueled by government spending and bank lending, boosting hopes that the biggest emerging economy will lead the way out of the worst global downturn since the 1930s.

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated in the second quarter, to 7.9 percent from 6.1 percent in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.

A string of accompanying NBS data for June depicted an economy successfully making up for a slump in exports through domestic demand, especially capital spending, generated by a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) pump-priming package and record bank lending.

The data laid a foundation for hitting the year’s growth target of 8 percent, the minimum deemed necessary to hold down unemployment, NBS spokesman Li Xiaochao said.

“We see more people shopping and prices beginning to rise. The economy is recovering and the recovery is intensifying. All the government’s policies have worked together to help us overcome the financial crisis,” Li said.

Economists had forecast 7.5 percent growth, and several promptly responded to yesterday’s figures by raising their projections for this year and next year.

“We see clear upside risks to our current GDP growth forecast of 8.3 percent for 2009,” said Song Yu and Qiao Hong at Goldman Sachs. They said the second quarter’s 7.9 percent growth translated into a 16.5-percent pace compared with the first quarter when expressed as a seasonally adjusted annualized rate.

Frank Gong, head of China research with JP Morgan Chase, raised his GDP forecasts, to 8.4 percent from 7.8 percent for 2009, and to 9.0 percent from 8.5 percent for 2010.

The analysts said if they simply keep the previous quarter-on-quarter assumptions for the third and fourth quarters, the implied annual GDP growth will reach 8.9 percent, comparable to its level in 2008.

The recovery, however, was not yet on a solid footing and the economy was growing below potential, the NBS spokesman warned.

“Prices were still falling; overall demand was weak; some industries faced overcapacity; and the industry use rate was low,” Li said.

The consumer price index declined by 1.7 percent year-on-year in June from a negative 1.4 percent in May, while the producer price index fell by 7.8 percent year-on-year in June from a negative 7.2 percent a month earlier.

But analysts said that while prices would likely continue to fall in the coming months on a year-on-year basis, deflation is unlikely to become a long-term trend.

“China’s expansionary monetary policy, coupled with rebounding commodity and asset market prices, suggest that China will emerge from deflation in the second half of 2009,” Li Jianfeng, an analyst with Shanghai Securities, said.

Despite decade long Cultural Revolution, China has learned best to preserve cultural values for future generation, said Nepali writer in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

The decade long Cultural Revolution indeed had invited the trend of preservation and conservation in China though it is regarded dark times in the history. Such preserved cultural heritage of past have become one of the best economic source in China through the door of tourism, said Dr Tulsi Bhattarai, former executive chairman of state run newspaper Gorkhapatra.

Impressed with cultural diversity and development in China, Bhattarai expressed his experience of recent visit in China. Bhattarai along with 55 more members went to China for 15 days people-to-people cultural visit in June.

The huge cultural delegation comprising of 19 writers, artists, composers and 37 industrialists, business people and intellectuals visited Lhasa, Xi’an, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and returned back to home through the way of Hong Kong.

“I had heard of Lhasa since my childhood and China has been changed a lot since 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong. And the current image of China, dominating world as a rising economical power because of all these issues I was curious to observe China through my own eyes,” said Bhattarai.

“I had been to Lhasa in 2001 and this time our team also succeeded the visit commencing from the same route of Lhasa,” he added.

According to him, Lhasa has been developed rapidly within eight years, adding “appearance of Potala Palace has become more beautiful and clean.”

“This people-to-people cultural visit in China has become fruitful for me since it enabled me to see China by myself,” he said.

Bhattarai, who is former general manager of “Sajha Publication”, government owned publication, said that modern development and economical progress in China is not just influential but also an example. “China has successfully applied modernism without destroying cultural values. They have adopted the best model of development that fits the country”, he added.

“While interacting with writers and literary figures during the visit to many places of China, we came to know that most of the writers were unaware of origin of Lord Gautam Buddha,” said Bhattarai.

He said that most of the Chinese writers and readers read Indian books that interpret Lord Buddha’s origin in India instead of Nepal. “Language has become the main barrier between Nepal and China to communicate from people to people level.”

According to Bhattarai, the members of Chinese writers association who interacted with Nepalese visiting delegation have agreed to translate few of both country’s book in both language to facilitate better understanding.

Bhattarai, also the former member secretary of Nepal Academy, noted that human sensitivity depicted in Chinese literature somehow resembles with social aspects of Nepalese literature. “Chinese literature used to portray revolution, patriotism and awareness relevant issues till 80’s. But these days, they are inclined toward romanticism and human behavior issues,” he said.

Bhattarai said, “after visiting China I came to know that unity and stability are the essential for development. Without strong leadership, development is hard to achieve. In our country, we also need good leadership to lead people of the country to take right way to make development like China.”

“Nepal needs to maintain close relationship not only with India but also with China,” he said, adding that Nepal also needs to increase exchange programs in a bid to strengthen relationship between Nepal and China.

They sobbed, they cried, loud and clear. They gazed at a spot of the floor for a long time, with sorrowful faces and eyes swelling with tears.

They, in groups, followed one and another on Thursday into a room on the 13th floor of Hotel World Plaza, choosing forms to register: dead or missing.

If you call that lucky, some people just filled forms to declare their damage of property in the deadly riot, which took place on Sunday evening in Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The riot has left at least 156 dead and more than 1,000 others injured.

Holding a death certificate of his brother Yu Hai, attested by Urumqi City Public Security Bureau, 29-year-old Yu Lin sat quietly but mournfully in a chair with his grieved wife Tong Yahui.

When approached and asked by Xinhua reporters, Yu and his wife Tong suddenly broke into tears.

“My brother was killed (in the riot), this had been confirmed by police photos and DNA testing,” Tong cried out immediately at her first words, and then choked with sobs.

Yu, his eyes also reddened, continued to narrate his brother’s story in the room which serves as the office to handle the aftermath of the riot.

“I called my brother Yu Hai at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday when the violence broke out,” said Yu the junior. “The phone call was answered by a policeman and he said my brother might be caught in the middle of the riot, and he told me to rush to the People’s Hospital.”

“I walked all my way to the hospital from the South Gate as violence still mounted on streets,” Yu the junior recounted. “I just thought of my brother at that moment and only wanted to be with him when he was in trouble, without knowing the danger I also faced.”

In the hospital, he was told by a nurse that his brother tried to back his car from the mobs, but failed. Yu Hai was pulled out of the car and beaten by dozens of thugs.

Yu the younger got the things left from his brother: a black mobile phone and a handbag, and an identification card. The police recovered them by the roadside.

“We tried to look for my brother at all hospitals from that night to the next morning except the intensive care unit wards, which can’t be accessed without authorization,” Yu said, “but still we can’t find him.”

Searching every possible place, including the funeral home and criminal police unit, for Yu Hai, the young couple failed again.

“Our only hope was that my brother was being treated in the ICU wards,” Yu cried again.

“My elder brother was 34 and he could see his baby in four months,” Yu said, wiping tears off his eyes. “How can we tell our pregnant sister-in-law about this?”

The ring inside his wife’s bag interrupted Yu’s narration.

Overturning her bag for a while, Tong found and answered the black mobile phone left behind by her deceased brother-in-law.

“Hello, he is no longer here,” Tong told the phone, trying hard to speak in normal tone.

Silence.

“Who is this?” Tong asked, then said. “He was murdered.” Then her mood collapsed and covered her face with her hands.

As of Thursday noon, more than 1,000 families members had resorted to the working team to find their missing relatives.

Although she had personally gone through that nightmare, four-year-old Zou Liyang can’t understand what has happened to her family.

“My dad has gone out to make money, so has my mom,” said Zou in a pure face. “My grandparents have visited relatives.”

The truth is, her parents and grandparents were all beaten to death by rioters on Sunday. Her elder brother was in an ICU ward.

Her memory about that night was “the rascals smashed the windows of my father’s car and I was very afraid.”

Wang Zewu, Zou’s uncle, touched her head, struggling to remain calm.

“She was saved by an unknown Uygur man in red T-shirt,” Wang said in a low voice, holding tight a piece of paper written with his brother-in-law’s car plate number.

“We went to all hospitals in Urumqi and found my 16-year-old nephew at an ICU ward in No.3 Hospital,” he said. “We can’t find the four others of their family - my sister, my brother-in-law and their parents.”

On Tuesday, Wang reported the missing of the Zous to the working team handling the aftermath of the riot. Two days later, he finally saw the slain photos of four members of his sister’s family.

The Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) ambassador to the UN, Pak Gil Yon, has written to Secretary-General Kofi Annan voicing strong opposition to grantingJapan a permanent seat on the Security Council.

“Since Japan has neither sincerely reflected on its past, nor compensated, but poses a threat to the North-East Asia, I would like to reiterate that Japan cannot become a permanent member of the UNSC which deals with the global peace and security, and that the DPRK strongly opposes any expansion of the UNSC which includesJapan’s membership,” read the letter, obtained by Xinhua Tuesday.

“Japan’s permanent membership of the UNSC cannot be tolerated at all as it contravenes the main mission of the United Nations, considering its past crimes against humanity, today’s revival of its militarism and threats to its neighboring countries,” said theletter, dated Monday.

“I could not but express concerns over the fact that Japan is demanding its right to a permanent seat of the UNSC for its contribution to the UN budget and some countries are tilting to support it for its purse,” it added.

The letter came as Japan, along with Germany, Brazil and India,is stepping up its bid for permanent membership of an enlarged Security Council. The ambassadors of the four countries are scheduled to meet with Annan later Tuesday, who is expected to putforward a report on the UN reforms by the end of March. The reportis widely seen to have significant impact on the ongoing debate onthe UN reforms, including the Security Council’s enlargement.

Wu Yulu was busy. The China Central Television and Tianjin Satellite Television visited his home on back- to- back days to produce special programs about him. In the past few years, he attended conferences and exhibitions, and lectured at several universities.

“Many people invited me to dinner. Many of my fans took pictures with me and asked for my autograph,” he said.

A third-grade school dropout with a bit of self-taught knowledge of electricity, the 48-year-old farmer’s son has made manually 30-plus robots with wires and iron & steel, wood and other materials. On his pink-colored name card he marked his profession as “inventor.” People called him “Robot Daddy”.

Seven years ago, Wu Yulu was an obscure name in Mawu Village in the southeast suburb of Beijing, about an hour’s drive from the city proper. Only neighbors and close friends knew he had a zeal for mechanical work and that he had made some strange machines.

When he was a small boy, the fifth son of a poor rural family, he was regarded by fellow villagers as a black sheep. He didn’t like the school and often played hooky. But he showed an enormous interest in playing with whatever toys he could get his hands on. His school bag was full of small objects he collected on the way to and from school. He made boat miniatures with wood, elastic rubber bands and spring steel strips. Once he was intrigued by a disused iron lock. He figured out its structure and was able to fashion a master key for it.

Wu quit the elementary school in his third year. Teacher Li Shihua, 70, said she was impressed by the boy’s handwriting, and his paintings were not bad, either.

“He liked to dismantle and reassemble toys. As for studying lessons, I really don’t remember that he had any outstanding performance, ” she said.

When Wu grew up, he showed little ambition in supporting himself or the family by doing good farm work. The yields from the land he tilled were often far less than those by others. He continued to spend most of the time working on or playing with allsorts of small gadgets. Being the youngest son in the family, Wu was favored by his parents and indulged. But the behavior that came from being spoiled won him a bad name in the village, where good farm work was most important to a household.

The beginnings of Wu’s robot making bore a resemblance to an anecdote about Isaac Newton. The idea occurred to him one day when he saw a tall young man in blue clothing hustling past the gate.

“I was fascinated by the graceful, coordinated stride of the man’s walking. I asked myself ‘Can I make a machine man that can walk like him?’” Wu recalled. He began to sketch on a cardboard and found materials to build his machine. He was about 11 years old then. The initial attempt was not successful. But the idea lingered on. A decade later, he was employed by a village-run factory as a maintenance worker. His robot dream was rekindled. His first work was a man-shaped machine that could slowly walk, dragging a tail on the rear to keep balance. It was named Wu No. 1. A series of robots had followed, making Wu a prolific “Daddy” of 34 robot children.

Wu No. 1 walked but was unable to raise its legs. Wu No. 2 raised its legs but still needed a tail to maintain balance. The subsequent products improved on the earlier models. They could climb or jump or perform simple human acts. And the number of legsof a robot varied from two to 20. Wu No.25 was attached to a two-wheeled cart. “He” greeted people in a pre-recorded human voice. At the command of the person sitting on the cart, who operated on a pair of handles that resembled those of a motorbike, “He” pulled the cart forward or moved it backward.

Inventions were inspired by curiosity and an impulse to challenge himself.

“After I had made a robot that could walk, I wanted to see if I could also make it jump,” Wu said, “I didn’t care about the practical use of the machine, or if it could make money in the future.”

Wu had been poor for the greater part of his life. But he would spend his last buck to buy materials to make machines. His wife remembered many occasions when she had to borrow money to buy the parts for him.

Wu’s unpopular name in the village would have been a problem for him to find a wife. But after the first meeting arranged by a matchmaker, he fell in love with the girl named Dong Shuyan. It was hot summer. Wu made a device that, driven by electric power, waved a cattail-leaf fan. He took it to Dong’s home. The gift captured the girl’s heart.

After the wedding ceremony, Dong shouldered the major responsibility of the family, raising two sons and sharing the hardship — and sometimes horror — of her husband’s extraordinary engagements. Wu’s left hand was severely injured by the blast of a detonator that he found at a recycling center and mistook as an imported battery. The small object was marked “TNT”. Wu said he had noticed it but did not understand. He regretted leaving the school too early. And one day in 1999 a fire broke out in Wu’s mud brick and wood house, causing heavy losses to the family. The fire was started by the voltage regulator Wu used to facilitate his work at night. The incident almost led to a divorce and the dissolution of the family.

It would not be unfair to say that Wu was an absent-minded husband and father.

“He would forget eating or sleeping when he encountered a problem with the machine,” said his second son Wu Wangyang.

“He did care about us when we had illness. But in other times he did not pay attention to his children like a normal father,” WuWangyang said, “He cared more about his machines.”

In 2002, Wu submitted his Wu No. 5 to a national farmer’s S&T competition. He won the first prize and an award of 10,000 yuan. Two years later, he won the title of “the Brightest Farmer Inventor” and another 10,000 yuan. He sold his Super Wu No. 5. to an individual and another robot for wiping windowpanes to a company. Wu said he was talking with a business group for jointly manufacturing and developing robots.

Dr Li Chengrong, a researcher with the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said Wu’s robot products were mostly mechanical.

“It was not easy for a farmer to accomplish this with only his hands,” he said.

To quote a senior Tongzhou District Government official, who retired years ago, “Wu has won glory for the hometown.”

Han Changjiang, the current village CPC chief, said the local government has helped Wu by supplying electricity he needed. And the two patents Wu holds were obtained under the auspices of the government.

“We’ll continue to give him due help. But we don’t know much about his activities. He seldom talked to us,” Han said.

Wu Yulu used to be a man of few words. He was reportedly red-faced and couldn’t give a word on his first media occasion at the 2002 event. Now, he looked natural before the camera and talked preparedly about his past and present.

With the busy social activities, Wu has less time now for devising and making machines. “It is a concern,” he said, “it will be temporary. I have many ideas in my mind that need to materialize.”

Wu did produce two new robots this year, increasing the total of his robot products to 36. He would not show the new products lightly out of a concern of protecting his intellectual property. He told the reporter that one robot was designed to help turn invalid patients in sick beds. The other was able to play chess with people. The two robots use artificial intelligence furnished by his younger son Wu Wangyang, who is a first-year Computer Science & Technology major at Beijing Information S&T University.

According to Teacher Li, Wu Yulu’s passion for and talent in making machines is inherited from his late father, who had nimble hands and was in the habit of doing every piece of work on hand neatly and well.

“Now his younger son Wu Wangyang is just like him,” she said.

Wu Wangyang said after graduating from college, he would help his father in weaving the robot dream. The father and son seemed to be nurturing a vivid and bright scenario.