Armless man wows China's Got Talent by playing piano with his toes

An armless Chinese pianist has wowed audiences on "China's Got Talent" with a flawless performance of the classic "Mariage D'amour" - using only his toes. Liu Wei lost both his arms when he was 10 after he touched a high-voltage wire during a game of hide-and-seek.

But the 23-year-old stunned hundreds of thousands of people across China by delivering a mistake-free performance of famous French pianist Richard Clayderman's Mariage D'amour using only his toes. Although he was devastated by the loss of his arms as a young boy, Liu said he was happy and it was "destiny."

Update: This is a much better synced video, with subtitles.


"For people like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death; the other was to struggle without arms to live an outstanding life," he said. When he was 18, Liu decided to follow his dream to become a professional musician and taught himself to play the piano in secret. His first piano teacher quit, saying it was impossible for anyone to play with their toes.

The Beijing teen agreed there were pieces he could not play because he was not able to press keys across octaves. But eventually he developed his own style of playing with his toes. Liu got a standing ovation on China's Got Talent and advanced to the next round of the competition.