China's nationwide poverty-alleviation campaign, which vows to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020, is set to bring a better life to these kids.

NANCHANG, May 31  -- Childhood should be full of love and laughter. Yet some children have shouldered a much heavier burden. Just as an old Chinese saying goes, children in poor families are forced to grow up faster and become independent quicker than their peers.

China's nationwide poverty-alleviation campaign, which vows to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020, is set to bring a better life to these kids.

YANGCUN VILLAGE

Zhou Tao, Yangcun Village of Suichuan County, eastern China's Jiangxi Province, finally bid farewell to his shadow "friend," a white gauze mask, after years of painful struggles.

This combo photo taken respectively on Nov. 5, 2014 and on April 30, 2020 shows Zhou Tao (R) feeding his mother with a lollipop in mask (up) and without mask (down) in Suichuan County, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)

In March 2014, at the age of 13, the boy was disfigured in an accidental fire, in which 38 percent of his entire body was burned.

Since then, Zhou has been wearing a mask and became "the boy behind the mask."