Small dose, big job: TCM technician's 30-year devotion to pill-making

A screenshot shows Zhang Dongmei making the pills.

Painstaking efforts

Just like they say Rome wasn't built in one day, producing a three-gram pill with 100-percent accuracy would not have been easy when Zhang Dongmei started learning the traditional skill.

Like most of the hand-down craftsman, Zhang Dongmei took over her mother's job at Tongrentang at the age of 17 years old, as an apprentice.

It took her a long time to practice rolling the medicine strips, as it is a crucial step in creating the best produced pill.

"I was not satisfied with the medicine strips I was making, so I started practicing rolling noodles after work, and my family ate noodles almost every day,” said Zhang as she recalled her memories and laughed.

After one year's work, Zhang felt she could move on to the next important step: make pills.

Compared to the "rolling" step, making pills is more skillful and rigorous. According to Zhang, when making the pills, she has to straighten her arms and waist, in order to balance the power. "I have to find the right way to move the board properly, so the medicine strips could be well rolled with the board," Zhang said.

Now Zhang suffers from lumbar disc herniation, an occupational disease, and has constant backache.

"I try to persuade her to go to the hospital, but she always says she has so much work. She doesn't take a break on weekends, and works from 8 am to 8 pm," said Zhang's husband to CCTV. When the pain becomes unbearable, she simply takes painkillers instead of visiting a doctor or resting.

Apart from rolling and making pills, coating, waxing and stamping on the pill, all these procedures are handmade crafts. "Although machines can make pills, but the high quality pills still require the magic of hands."