Hands & Stars

手创星辉

Chinese Craftsmanship · Global Employment Empowerment for Special Needs Youth

Guiding every star to its own sky.

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March 21, 2026 · World Down Syndrome Day

One-Year Teaching Achievement Exhibition

About the Project

About Hands & Stars

Hands & Stars is a charitable initiative launched in Beijing, China, dedicated to empowering special needs youth worldwide through traditional Chinese craftsmanship, founded by Chinese artist Cheng Lifang.

The project uses Chinese intangible cultural heritage lacquerwork and carving as its medium, with 'local cultural translation' as its core methodology — integrating local cultural elements into craft education, allowing artisanship to grow organically from the children's own lives.

Tailored to the cognitive characteristics of youth with Down syndrome and autism spectrum conditions, the project has pioneered the 'Reverse Stratified Pedagogy,' where a sense of achievement arrives before technical mastery; by training local teachers, the project ensures skills take sustainable root.

We believe every life is a star with its own orbit to follow. Our mission is not 'aid and therapy,' but to protect each star's own light — helping children grow from 'those being cared for' into 'those who create.'

Origin Story

Back to Where It Began

March 2025 · Addis Ababa

In March 2025, I arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the first time. Not with an artisan's pride, but carrying a sincere question: Could Chinese lacquerwork and carving light up new possibilities for children far away?

The Deborah Foundation School for Down Syndrome Youth is a nonprofit school providing growth support for young people with Down syndrome. Over the years, they had solved the most fundamental yet most difficult challenges — food, healthcare, and education.

The children had meals, classrooms, and daily care. But founder Mr. Abadula Gemeda shared with me his deeper concern:

What then?
When young people with Down syndrome enter society, what then? This question had lingered in my heart for a long time too.

As a craftsman who has walked alongside traditional arts for fifteen years, I have witnessed firsthand how craft can transform a person — it brings calm to the restless, focus to the timid, and lets the lost discover beauty being born in their own hands.

Initially, I came with ideas of 'craft therapy' or 'assistance,' but quickly rejected my own assumptions. They are already wonderful, with no 'problems' to fix. What we needed was not to repair, but to build a suitable pathway — one where talent and passion could flow naturally.

So we chose 'co-creation,' and named this initiative 'Hands & Stars.'

Chinese craft traditions value time and focus above all. And these young people possess exactly these qualities. While we gradually lose our ability to focus amid endless choices and information, they can often devote themselves to a single task with pure passion.

When I truly entered the classroom, sat alongside the children, and saw the light sparkling in their eyes as they gripped the carving knife, I suddenly understood: what they need has never been 'help,' but to be seen, trusted, and given a chance to shine.

We are not rescuing stars — we are helping each star find its own universe.
March 21, 2025 — World Down Syndrome Day diary

Pedagogy

Reverse Stratified Pedagogy

Cheng's Reverse Stratified Pedagogy

In just 7 days, we distill a traditional 40-60 day lacquerwork curriculum into four visual teaching stages. The teaching order is reversed from the production order, but each step yields clearly visible results.

Why Teach in Reverse?

If taught in order — starting with body solidification — students face an untreated base on day one, performing tedious preparation work without seeing what the final piece will look like. For youth with Down syndrome who have limited attention spans, it's easy to lose direction at the starting line.

Teaching in reverse, every step ends with visible results: today it's polished, tomorrow it's painted, the next day patterns emerge. Only at the end do they understand — the body solidification that marks the teaching endpoint is actually where real production begins. Every beautiful piece stands upon this most fundamental step.

Step 1: Polishing

Students see wood transform from rough to smooth, with a lustrous surface emerging. This is actually the final step in production, but we place it first — letting a sense of achievement arrive before technical mastery.

Step 2: Lacquering

Colors layer upon layer, the object gradually becomes rich and full. Students witness the growth of color firsthand. Each coat must be thin, waiting for the previous layer to dry completely before the next, building depth through patient accumulation.

Step 3: Texturing (Danian)

On the smooth lacquered surface, thick lacquer paste is applied to create varied raised textures. The height, shape, and flow of these textures directly determine the final patterns of the finished piece.

Step 4: Body Solidification (Gutai)

This is the teaching endpoint, yet the production starting point. Body solidification is the very first step in lacquerwork — stabilizing the base body to create an unshakeable foundation for everything that follows.

"百里千刀一斤漆"

大漆，又名天然漆、生漆，是割开漆树树皮后从韧皮部流出的白色黏性乳液。一棵漆树整个生命周期只能分泌约10公斤生漆。所用颜料系将朱砂、青金石、孔雀石等天然矿物研磨成粉，调入大漆制成。

Four Steps Complete, the Journey Begins

These four steps form the skeleton of this craft. The teachers have mastered the complete teaching process. In the days when I am not there, they will accompany the children through practice after practice. The method has been left behind. What remains is time.

Our Promise

1 + 2 + 10 + 100

Our Promise in Ethiopia

Year

Project cycle

Crafts

Lacquerwork & Carving

Local Teachers

Training local educators

Artworks

To be completed by March 21, 2026

March 21, 2026 — World Down Syndrome Day. As we prepare to present our answer to the world with 100 artworks, I want to return to where it all began, to that initial question and the moment of being moved, to remember why we set out.

Exhibition 2026

Craft, Starlight, A Shared Path

From Hands to Hearts, From Skills to Shining Futures

On the occasion of World Down Syndrome Day 2026, Hands & Stars and H.E. Abadula Gemeda, founder of the Deborah Foundation for Down Syndrome Youth in Ethiopia, have jointly established a one-year teaching achievement exhibition. Through masterful craftsmanship that transcends borders, we illuminate employment hopes for special needs youth, conveying humanitarian care and the warmth of cultural exchange. 100 handcrafted artworks present a vivid story from 'skill empowerment' to 'life in bloom,' building a tangible, resonant, and sustainable model for international charitable cooperation.

Cheng Lifang and H.E. Abadula Gemeda jointly establish the one-year teaching achievement exhibition

Exhibition Date

March 21, 2026

World Down Syndrome Day

Exhibited Works

100 Handcrafted Artworks

Lacquerwork & Carving

Curatorial Vision

Tangible, Resonant, Sustainable

International Charity Model

Gallery

Visual Record

Ethiopian National Television Special Report

In February 2026, Ethiopian National Television produced a special report on the fourth Hands & Stars teaching session.

Why Coffee Cups?

At the Deborah School, people often ask: why coffee cups?

Because coffee runs through their veins.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. The first cup at dawn, the ceremony on the street corner, the familiar patterns and shapes at the market — this is a language that needs no translation. It is daily life, memory, and the origin of identity.

What we brought is Chinese craftsmanship — lacquer and carving. Ancient, quiet, time-demanding arts.

We did not impose Chinese craft upon their lives. Instead, we let it walk into their world: using the language of Chinese craft to tell the story of coffee.

Student proudly holding a lacquered coffee cup

Every civilization is a beam of light. By borrowing each other's light, we see a more complete version of ourselves.

The cup is a vessel they know well. Its shape comes from their everyday life; its patterns echo coffee blossoms and beans. They are not imitating an unfamiliar beauty — they are finding a new way to express something deeply familiar.

What we do is this: use Chinese craftsmanship to dress their familiar world in a new garment.

This is not cultural export. This is cultural dialogue — two civilizations meeting on a single object, neither consuming the other, nor losing themselves.

When a coffee cup is lacquered, polished, and burnished in the hands of an African child, it is both Ethiopian daily life and Chinese artisanal expression; both 'my' creation and 'our' shared vessel.

Student carefully painting a coffee cup with lacquer

The purpose of Hands & Stars has never been to make Chinese craft visible — but to let these children, through Chinese craft, see themselves.

This is our answer: with coffee as the medium, with craft as the bridge. Let every civilization become the light that illuminates the other.

News

Deborah Foundation × HANDS&STARS

One-Year Teaching Exhibition Officially Launched

Addis Ababa | February 4, 2026

His Excellency Abadulla, Founder of the Deborah Foundation and former Speaker of the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives, and Mr. Cheng Lifang, Founder of HANDS&STARS, jointly signed the 2026 World Down Syndrome Day Student-Teacher Exhibition Agreement at Deborah Academy, officially launching the one-year teaching achievement exhibition.

The exhibition will be held on March 21, 2026, World Down Syndrome Day, showcasing 100 lacquerware and carving works jointly created by Chinese and Ethiopian teachers and students over the past year.

About the Exhibition

The exhibition adopts a 1+2+1 co-creation model: 1 trainee with Down syndrome as the lead, 2 local teachers as support, and 1 Chinese master instructor as guide. The works blend Chinese lacquer art with Ethiopian coffee culture, each piece a meeting of two civilizations in craft.

Key Figures

1 Year: From the first teaching session in March 2025 to the exhibition opening in March 2026

2 Crafts: Chinese lacquer art and carving techniques

10 Teachers: Ethiopian local teachers completed training

100

100 Works: Co-created by teachers and students

“

As long as it is for the future of these children, we are willing to take the time to understand, explore, and practice any good method. Hands & Stars brings not only skills, but the possibility for young people with Down syndrome to be seen and needed.

His Excellency Abadulla

“

This is not a one-way aid, but a two-way illumination. When Chinese craft meets coffee culture, it is to let these children see themselves through their own hands.

Mr. Cheng Lifang

Exhibition Theme

Craft, Starlight, A Path of Symbiosis

From Hands to Hearts, From Skills to Shining Futures

Given time and trust, every star can shine along its own trajectory

Every child is already a star.
We simply polish the starlight,
and walk with them back to their own orbit.

Cheng Lifang · 程礼方

Get Involved

Join Us

There is a Chinese proverb: 'When everyone gathers firewood, the flame rises high.' Charitable work needs more people with positive energy to join and push it forward.

Origin

Beijing, China

Cheng Lifang Artisanal Art Studio

Partner

Deborah Foundation

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Contact

[email protected]

Founder: Cheng Lifang, Chinese carving artist with over fifteen years of experience, who has successfully held multiple solo art exhibitions and is dedicated to exploring the social value of traditional craftsmanship.

Special Thanks

Qin Wan

Co-Founder

Her generous support funded the early stage of the Hands & Stars project, allowing this seed to take root in Ethiopian soil.

Hu Lin

Visual Identity Designer

Designed the visual identity for the Hands & Stars charity project, giving the mission a face that can be shared with the world.

When everyone gathers firewood, the flame rises high. Charitable work needs more hearts full of positive energy to join and push it forward.