A man 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 in 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, ‘This is how it would feel if the end of the 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 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 because his education ended at middle school level, and he couldn’t do manual work. “Seven years with no job left me devastated”, he said.
In the midst of his trials, Sham had a lucky break. In 2007, he met his future wife, Chen Wei-ling, and they married a year later. “To make me feel less bored, my wife supported me in engaging in any kinds of sports I wanted, such as table tennis and cycling. I really appreciated her unconditional companionship,” he said.
Even today, he is nervous when he rides in a car. “I refuse to sit in the front passenger seat. Fast driving still distresses me,” he said.
In 2009, Sham finally landed a job. He was recruited as an administrative assistant by the Hong Kong Physically Handicapped and Able-Bodied Association, which is funded by the Jockey Club.
With his newfound security, he began dreaming of a better life and decided he wanted to learn to play the violin－he viewed it as a form of “compensation” for his loss.
Painful progress
It wasn’t easy. Progress was painfully slow. Then he met Foley Lam Ho-yin via an introduction from the Hong Kong Amputees Association. Lam was an amateur violinist who had a vision that he could teach a one-handed person to play the instrument. Sham became his first pupil.
Lam had been through trials himself. In middle school, his violin training had been suspended for an entire semester after he sustained a wrist injury playing football. “I know how difficult it is to play the violin with only one hand. When Janice Chak Man-fung (chairwoman of the amputees’ association) told me about Sham, I was happy to help,” he said.
“Sham cannot draw a whole bow. It takes him longer to switch strings by drawing the bow back and forth, and the prosthetic limb was not designed specifically for him. That makes it hard to place the bow completely perpendicular to the strings to make a perfect sound.”
Sham is undeterred. Every day when his working day finishes at 6 pm, he and Lam study shortcuts to make playing easier.
Recently, they have been busy practicing songs such as Castle in the Sky, the theme to a movie made in 1986, and Below the Lion Rock, the title music to a TV series of the same name, which was often broadcast by the Hong Kong media during the SARS outbreak in 2003 and became something of an unofficial anthem for residents.
On Friday, Sam and Lam will perform the songs at the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Selection Ceremony, a flagship project founded by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong in 1970 to recognise young people who excel in their professional endeavours and commitment to the community. Then, on Monday, they will play at the Konica Minolta Green Concert.
Lam acknowledged that Sham is a novice musician, but insisted that the recitals, and public acclaim, will signal the real start of his pupil’s love affair with the violin.
Sham is still trying to come to terms with his situation and is learning to be more philosophical.
“It may sound ridiculous but sometimes I see good changes because of the amputation. At least it stimulated me to cultivate this, my first real hobby,” he said.
A superhero with strings attached
When his daughter June was born in 2015, mastery of the violin took on a new importance to Sham Hang-fu.
“Before she was born, I wanted to become a hero in my own right. Now, I want to become a ‘superhero’ for her,” he said. “When I practice the violin at home, my daughter sits quietly and pays full attention to my playing. If her mother is not there, she asks her to join us,” he said.
Sham is learning to become a good father, trying to fulfil a promise he made to himself at the time June was born. However, his injury still haunts him.
Once, when he was walking in the park with his daughter, a boy approached and asked if Sham’s arm would grow back. When the 36-year-old replied that it wouldn’t, the boy turned to June and said, “Your father has one arm forever. He’s different from my father.”
Sham didn’t know what to say.
Another time, he was flustered when June wanted to give him a high five. He reached out with his right hand awkwardly. “How about the other one? Give me five!” she cried, patting Sham’s stump, leaving him nonplussed.
“It made me realise I hadn’t fully accepted the reality of my amputation, even after 14 years,” he said. “My little daughter taught me a very good lesson. To become her superhero, I have to accept my imperfection and try to find an appropriate way to tell her how I lost my arm.”
Sham said playing the violin does not make life easier for him, and he faces new challenges every day. The responsibility of having a daughter who needs his care never leaves him, but he wouldn’t change it for the world－and he will never stop trying to be her superhero.
