Shanghai’s best sign language services and community groups

Established by deaf film director Zheng Xiaosan, the first Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival took place in 2018. It showed dozens of films from different countries including China, Austria, Germany, France, Canada and the UK and also featured filmmaking and acting workshops, deaf artists’ exhibitions and talks aiming to encourage more deaf artists and filmmakers. The second SHIDFF takes place in September 2020 with a lot more film submissions and more diverse representations of the deaf community.

Project Access is one of Shanghai’s best sign language translation services, committed to building a barrier-free communication environment and safeguarding the equal rights of deaf people. Made up of a team of sign language interpreters, the company provides professional sign language translation and barrier-free consulting services for deaf and hearing individuals, as well as for organisations and enterprises that are conscious about social inclusion.

The group Long Guo Liu Heng, meaning 'traces left by dragons' in Chinese, is a running group organised by deaf fitness enthusiast Zhao Xingyi. Just like Zhao, his fifty or so other team members are also deaf, but that doesn’t stop them from having fun pushing their limits. Zhao and his running group meet frequently and train mainly for big races such as the Shanghai marathon, the Shanghai half-marathon and even the Spartan Race. Their next conquest, Hong Kong 100 Ultra Trail Race, takes place January 2020.