The story of a moderately educated man from rural China who has been married to an American woman with a PhD degree for 20 years has gone viral on mainland social media.

Wu Yanju, 44, was born in a village in Yuzhou, central Henan province.

His family was so poor that he had to sleep in a room shared with the livestock his parents raised, reported by Jimu News.

Although he studied well, hoping to change his fate through education, Wu left school at the age of 15 because his parents were not able to support his studies.

Wu then took up a manual labour job at a mine near his village where his father also worked. Not long later, his right eye was seriously injured while he was moving rocks.

Despite having surgery, Wu’s eyesight remained weak.

Like many people with impaired vision, Wu learned the skill of massage before going to work at a massage parlour in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in northwestern China.