Jin Wan, 21, dreams of having her own art studio. That may sound like nothing special for a university student majoring in animation design, but for Jin it’s part of a long struggle. She lost the ability to walk when she was five years old and is now confined to a wheelchair.

“My dream is very practical, isn’t it?” Jin asks, while sitting at home in a living room that also serves as a makeshift painting studio.

For Jin and her family, September 2, 1996 is a day etched in memory. Jin awoke that morning and was unable to sit up or control her legs. She was taken to hospital where doctors diagnosed transverse mytlitis and radiculitis, neurological disorders that would leave her paralyzed for life.

“It felt like a bolt from the blue,” Jin recalls.

Good-bye to her childhood dream of becoming a dancer.

Her childhood became an endless stream of medical treatment. She had to take medicines that caused hair loss and undergo arduous rehabilitation sessions.

Her mother quit a sales job to take care of the daughter. The family had to rely on her father’s income of about 1,500 (US$242) a month from a security guard job.

Life was hard, but Jin proved to be a tough little girl. She dried her tears and took on life with a determination to conquer adversity.

Many years later, when she participated in a TV program, the director asked her to be a bit more sentimental on air to create an atmosphere of sadness. Jin replied with a smile that she would never cry again.

With the dream of becoming a dancer gone, she found a new passion in art.

At the age of eight, she started to draw, testing her talents across a broad range, from Chinese calligraphy to Chinese paintings, from oils to watercolors, from painting to sketching.

She was a natural talent and a quick learner. In 2011, Jin had her first art exhibition as a painter and calligrapher. It was a great success.

“I paint with my heart to show my feelings toward the nature I respect, toward the people I love and toward the life I treasure,” Jin says.

She is now confidently pursing her dream through study at East China Normal University.

Jin pushes herself to excel. As a primary school student, she set her sights on top grades in homework. If she failed, she always re-did the homework until she got it right. When she decided to pursue painting and calligraphy, she practiced artwork for endless hours.

Her confidence comes from the support of friends who encourage rather than pity her.

“I guess it is my personality that makes me popular among friends,” Jin says. “I love being straight and candid, not in traditional style of Shanghai girls who are difficult to get along with.”

Her confidence also comes from her capabilities. She was told upon enrolling in university that her admission was approved because of her talent, not her disability.

Jin is making a name for herself in the art world. This summer, she auctioned some of her paintings, earning more than 70,000 yuan.

 She used the money to buy herself a 50,000-yuan pair of walking braces to help her stand up. She donated the rest of the money to unidentified disabled people.

Jin always keeps herself busy. She does volunteer work teaching mentally challenged children how to write and paint, and took part recently in a photography event at a care home for senior citizens.

Dreams lead to dreams. Jin says she wants to help disabled people get the most out of their lives.

“Every heart can feel what love is,” she says. “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never achieve it.”

Zhang Yan, 19

“I want to find my little brother, who must be a teenager by now.”

Zhang Yan, 19, a native of Chongqing and soon-to-be sophomore at Fudan University, has a special dream apart from the usual ambitions for a good job.

“I want to find my little brother, who must be a teenager by now,” Zhang says.

When Zhang was a young girl, her infant brother was snatched by a relative and never seen again. She says she doesn’t blame her parents. They were both migrant workers who needed to labor every day to make ends meet and couldn’t be home all the time to watch the children.

Instances of child-snatching are not uncommon. Recently in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, an obstetrician sold a newborn baby. The infant was later found, after having changed hands in three neighboring provinces, and returned to his mother.

The “Chinese Dream” may be particularly compelling for inland areas of China, where poor economic conditions and lax social governance have left many people without much hope for a better life. That’s been particularly true among migrant families.

“Although my parents later gave birth to a younger sister, I feel I must find my little brother to reconnect our blood bond,” Zhang says.

She is making her way to a better life by studying hard. Zhang is now learning German at Fudan.

“Being in Shanghai has been an eye-opener for me,” she says.

She did not return home until late July for the summer vocation because she had to finish part-time work as a private tutor.

On this trip home, which takes 27 hours by train, she treated herself to a sleeper berth with her earnings.

“It was much better than the experience during the winter holiday, when I had only a hard seat for the 41-hour slow train back to Chongqing,” she says.

Ye Ronghua, 21

“My dream is to one day become an assistant engineer at Shanghai Metro. That would be really cool.”

Ye Ronghua, 21, has just started his work life as an inspector of digital signals at Shanghai Shentong Metro Co.

This summer, under scorching heat, his job is to visit Metro stations, near and far, as part of job training for new employees.

“My dream is to one day become an assistant engineer at Shanghai Metro,” he says. “That would be really cool.”

Ye would hardly have imagined that dream three years ago. At that time, he was obsessed with basketball and wanted to become a superstar like Yao Ming.

Ye, who is 1.95 meters tall, was singled out as a good basketball prospect at the age of 12. In the ensuing six years, he practiced more than three hours almost every day, finally achieving the status as a city-level player.

“It is really hard to be great in sports,” he admits. “There’s the endless training, which can be quite boring, and a lot of injuries.”

Ye finally dumped his sports dream in 2010, when he suffered a serve chest injury.

“The doctor told me I could no longer do intense exercise, which meant the end of my sports life,” he explains.

By that time, it was too late for Ye to switch to an academic path because he had neglected his studies for basketball.

“I’m not very good at studies anyway, and I hate to recite things, English in particular,” Ye says, still amazed that Jeremy Lin, a rising NBA player, managed to graduate from Harvard while pursing his sports talent.

Ye later enrolled at the Shanghai Xingjian College, a vocational school, and plans to attend night school to get certification as an assistant engineer.

He says a job as chief engineer is probably out of the question since it requires a higher degree of education.

However, Ye hasn’t severed all ties with basketball. His best friends are all players, and he works part-time as a basketball coach for children at a private educational institution.

“I don’t regret the time I spent on basketball.” Ye says. “But the reality is so different from the dream. Sometimes you can make big efforts, and it all comes to naught.”

He fondly remembers his childhood, when dreams were simply delicious food and new toys.

“Dreams are best when they are pure,” he says.

He Mengyao, 17

“I hope I can become a protector of the environment, which is vital to ... give people a good place to live.”

He Mengyao, 17, fits the traditional mold of a Chinese model student.

She is sweet, in the style of the girl next-door, and highly disciplined. She chairs the student union at the Shanghai No. 3 Girls High School, excels in her studies and has developed a particular interest in promoting environmental protection.

“My dream is to be admitted to a good university next year,” He says. “Like many others, I want to get a good job in the future and live a quality life.”

She moved to Shanghai from Beijing about four years ago when her parents relocated because of work. Her school in Shanghai is famous for turning out accomplished ladies.

“The Chinese Dream to me means that every one of us should bear the responsibility of contributing to the country’s prosperity,” He says. “I hope I can become a protector of the environment, which is vital to sustain our development and give people a good place to live.”

Her interest in the environmental stems, in part, from the transformation Beijing underwent for the 2008 Olympic Games.

“It was amazing to see how a city could be transformed in such a short time,” she says. “Really, nothing is impossible if we all make the effort.”

Last year, He participated in an international conference in the US, where young people gathered to discuss the environmental future of the world.