Having read the open letter penned by Jimmy Lai last month, I felt a bit more at ease. I keep on telling everyone to get relieved not just for the sake of making them relieved, but the particulars mentioned in the letter from prison, not least the delights of making things by hand.

Here comes what he says in the letter: “I have to work by folding and sticking up brown envelopes. I have done no handiwork since I was a child labor. I find manual work a joy. That helps my spiritual exercise. I know now why monks in monastery have to do manual work. For after all it is body and soul that make man.”

Both handiwork and manual work here can refer to making things by hand. Take folding and gluing envelopes up. That is repetitive, simple and effortless work that demands not much intellectual ability.

Mar Lai’s saying that he has done no handiwork since he was employed as child labor reminded me of my old affairs of doing odd jobs in a factory in summer when I was a secondary school student. I was told off time and again by a foreman with words somehow like “high scores but low skills” of today for making mistakes continually when coloring eyes and ears of plastic Mickey Mice one after another. When my one-of-a-kind capability of making the paint out of bounds on every ear was discovered by him, he asked me my exam results out of curiosity, suspecting me of mental deficiency.

Since I had always been lauded by teachers, the good dressing-down given to me by the foreman made me dubious about my life. That said, being able to doubt and reflect upon oneself is where thrilling joy comes from. Even though one is apt at thinking, he is still good for nothing, given his fingers not in coordination with one another.

The impact that came upon me early had nipped my conceitedness in the bud. Just imagine that if that person who used to be first in class every year had worked as a painter, folded and glued envelopes up, she would have grasped the fact that human beings are limited by their own capability, admitted that everyone has shortcomings, and learned to be humble.

The remarkableness of repetitive work lies in duplication of copies that are exactly the same. It is wrong to think that repetition is equivalent to boredom. The difficulty of doing repetitive work is that wisdom, resoluteness and bravery cannot be put in good use. Commanding one’s fingers not to shudder and paint a dent in one stroke is like being swift instead of fast in calligraphy, which demands using one’s brain.

Having never folded and glued envelopes up, I can, however, imagine what it takes is just the same. The original form is a piece of paper. Even though there are creases on it, the job will be spoiled if one does it hastily and impatiently. There is a part in the movie Parasite about all the family members folding up pizza boxes. They spoil all of them, so money has to be deducted from their wages. After spirits dampened, how could one find joy out of boring tedious work? Respecting and focusing on the same maneuver without distracting thoughts, one will feel the nuances in the coordination between the brain and limbs, as well as the greatness of such trivial fun. You will not do that if you are not forced to. So, it’s priceless.

(Albert Leung／Lin Xi is an award-winning lyricist and writer.)

This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.

Click here for Chinese version

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