Violin sings from man with one arm
Aman with large round eyes bends to his instrument. The piece of sheet metal that substitutes for his missing arm draws the bow of his violin back and forth across the strings, emitting flashes of sunlight with each stroke. Thirty-six-year old Sham Hang-fu’s eyes are riveted on the strings, where the fingers of his right hand dance and provide clear articulation of the notes.
The Hong Kong resident, who is busy rehearsing for two recitals he and his teacher will give in front of thousands of people at media events in the city, has overcome a huge physical disability to play with one hand. However, he is convinced that he would never have taken up the instrument if he had remained able-bodied.
“The amputation 14 years ago dumped my life into the bottom of a well. I’d had enough of constraints and wanted to take a breath of fresh air from the ‘outside’,” he said. The violin is a ladder by which he escapes his plight and pursues a higher dream.
Three years ago, Sham knew little about playing the violin, and there was no one to ask for help. He spent a year looking for a violin suitable for exclusively right-hand use and building a prosthetic arm to hold the bow.
Sham found a crude prosthetic limb at a public hospital, along with a prosthetic socket to attach it to the stump of his arm. He attached a steel rod to the other end of the prosthesis, so he would be able to “hold” a violin bow.
The joints of the makeshift prosthesis are not limber. Sometimes they stick, requiring more exertion to draw the bow. The socket doesn’t fit comfortably against Sham’s stump, either, which creates friction as he plays. That means the prosthesis needs to be re-dressed repeatedly.
The setbacks have never dimmed his determination to play the violin. When he plays on the street, people are drawn to him, and they don’t offer sympathy but admiration, he said.
Life-changing event
Sham will never forget the events of Sunday, March 9, 2003. It was supposed to be a day off from his job as a delivery man in Mong Kok. However, he was called into work to help load some packages onto a truck. When the truck was fully laden, he jumped aboard with the driver and they started making deliveries.
At one point, they stopped at the Sheung Shui Market for a couple of drinks, but when they were back on the road, Sham tensed up as they tore along far faster than the speed limit.
“Maybe the driver wanted to make up for the lost time at the market,” Sham said.
It was noon, and cars were snarled up at the Fairview Park section of the New Territories Circular Road. “We were on the fast lane, the left side of the road.” he added, recalling how the cars blocking the road ahead all had their hazard warning lights on. “The driver veered into the middle lane at high speed.”
The truck was closing fast on a car. The distance between the two vehicles evaporated in seconds, said Sham, who could foresee the outcome. He grabbed the empty seat between him and the driver, sank back into his seat and braced for the crash.
“I knew a crash was inevitable, but the way it happened was not how I expected,” he said. The driver swerved to avoid colliding with a car he was tailgating, and crashed into a vehicle in the lane adjacent to the passenger side.
“I heard a bang, the wind on my face, glass fragments were flying toward me, into my mouth, nostrils and ears. Then I felt a deathly silence,” Sham said.
“I thought, would feel if world came’.
“I couldn’t feel my hand. I kept yelling out. It was the only way I could think of to stop things from getting ‘This is how it the end of the worse, though it really was no use at all.”
When he looked down, he saw the smashed bones of his left arm below the elbow.
“I didn’t mention the speeding to the police, though it might have helped me get more compensation,” he said. “The driver was about my age. My life was already ruined. I didn’t want him to become a victim, too.”
Desperate times
Sham’s left arm was amputated, and he spent the next two years in the hospital. For a long time he thought life would return to normal, but then he discovered he couldn’t tie his shoes, open a bottle of water or cut his fingernails. That’s when reality bit.
He was unemployed for seven years. He had no qualifications