Due to extreme poverty, Gao's parents sold her when she was around 5 years old to a family which maintained the tradition of making dough figurines. Although Gao did not learn how to make dough figurines formally due to the family's rules of having the skills only passed down to males, she still was influenced by the environment and mastered some skills.

In the 1990s, to help a colleague who was laid off from their factory, Gao picked up the techniques and started teaching her colleague to make dough figurines for a living.

"Giving the dough figurine a 'spirit' is the most important part. Your attitudes in life are crucial to the kind of 'spirit' you give the dough figurine," Gao said.

Liu Gang, who has a brittle bone disease known as the "China Doll Syndrome", has been learning how to make figurines from Gao since last March.

"The dough figurines that grandma Gao makes featured smiling faces, but the ones that I had made are still kind of blank, although they are much better than those I had made in the beginning," he said. "Besides providing me with food and lodgings, she has been collecting money to treat my disease."

With the help of friends, Gao took Liu to a hospital in Tianjin to do a complete checkup on his legs last year. "There is a glimmer of hope that Liu can be treated to stand and walk. I hope he can master the skills of making dough figurines so that he can make a living or find a job in the future," Gao said.

Currently, Gao has six apprentices, including one from Shanxi province and one from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, learning figurine making at her workshop which she rents for 1,000 yuan a month.

"So many students - I can't remember all of their names, but I hope all of them will have a kind heart to help people in need," she said.

For all of her students, Gao will first teach them how to make a rose which constitutes her teachings and wishes.

"While making the rose, I tell them the stamen symbolizes the need to focus on what we are pursuing, and the ten petals contain my wishes to them - I wish them all to be roses every day - and the green leaves express my wish for them to be healthy," Gao said.