Former depression victim cures himself by making wooden automata

A former victim of depressive disorder has finally found the cure to his mental illness -- over the past two years, he produced a total of 50 to 60 hand-cranked wooden automata. One of them had an exquisite design that was particularly eye-catching to netizens - a fish-shaped airship.

Photo shows a fish-shaped wooden airship measuring 1.4 meters long, 0.6 meters wide and 1 meter high that the carpenter produced at the end of 2020. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in law 10 years ago, the man with the screen name “Xiangmuersheng”, which means “carpenter", from Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province, engaged in various businesses other than the legal trade due to his introverted personality.

According to the man, he suffered from severe depression during the time he worked as a shopkeeper, as he was swamped with routine business affairs and felt trapped in the two-story store.

"Although the business was lucrative, I was in bad shape and even had thoughts of committing suicide, because I found myself lost while I was busy making money," the carpenter recalled, adding that he later hiked for half a month in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region in a bid to relieve his anxiety, which turned out to be in vain.

Photo shows the carpenter standing next to one of his woodworks. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

"It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I could try making some handicrafts, as I’ve enjoyed repairing and dismantling gadgets since I was a child," said the man, who decided to try curing or at least improving his mental disorder through woodwork.

During the trial process in 2018, the carpenter gradually became fascinated by wooden automata after he took training sessions at a school teaching how to make traditional hand-made wooden furniture and woodworks, and went online to do in-depth research on their mechanical structures.

Photo shows an exquisite woodwork piece produced by the carpenter. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Over the past two years or so, he has invested a total of 80,000 yuan ($12,224) on raw materials and improving his handicraft skills, and produced 50 to 60 hand-cranked wooden automata.

Inspired by the Japanese animated fantasy film Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki, the man designed and created a fish-shaped wooden airship measuring 1.4 meters long, 0.6 meters wide and 1 meter high at the end of last year. It took him 20 days to complete.

Photo shows an exquisite woodwork piece produced by the carpenter. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

"I imagined myself to be the old man who sits in the cockpit and steers the airship, as he is free to do the things he truly loves along with his beloved belongings," explained the man, whose dedication to carpentry has long since allowed him to escape his depressive mental state.