A. D. Coleman

A DEEP massage based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the specialty of Tang Sanliang at the Yitian Community Family Health Center Clinic on Yitiancun housing estate in Futian.

For this form of massage the masseur needs strength, because an hour of it constitutes a real physical effort. As it happens, Tang is a fairly big man — 180 cm tall, 95 kg in weight, with large hands.

Tang, 40, comes from Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province. He received his bachelor’s degree from Heilongjiang Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine University, specializing in massage therapy. In 1987, he began working professionally after graduation. He arrived in Shenzhen in 2005 and joined the clinic. His wife, a factory worker, and 17-year-old son who is still at school, live in Mudanjiang; he returns home for a month each year to spend the Chinese New Year holiday with them.

He considers that the lack of upward mobility within the profession a minor regret. But it has enabled him to provide direct assistance to thousands of people. “This is helping people,” he says. “I’m happy to do it.”