Short videos of skilled and playful workers performing their jobs with acrobatic flair

Kaitlyn Reed created a Twitter thread of videos of (mostly Chinese) workers performing manual tasks with incredible acrobaticism, dexterity and flair; the videos were ganked from Tiktok, the massively popular China-based video platform that is mostly know in the west as a place where tweens make and share elaborately choreographic lipsync videos augmented with a suite of skillfully applied video effects.

As one reply points out, much of this work is brutal piecework performed by badly exploited laborers; nevertheless, the videos are testament to the human capacity to find joy and mastery even under conditions of drudgery.

I've embedded the whole thread below, but here are my favorites:

Dancing noodle-tosser:

pic.twitter.com/fe6lNLCiT2— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 18, 2019

Robot apocalypse?

pic.twitter.com/MwuH0uLWhZ— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 18, 2019

Fritter virtuoso:

pic.twitter.com/udRwM6D6pg— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 20, 2019

Bollard-leverer:

pic.twitter.com/DKnK7Dibst— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 22, 2019

One of my favorite things about @tiktok_us is when people share videos of their jobs. So here’s a thread of some of the most unique jobs & talented people I’ve discovered on #tiktok pic.twitter.com/IhCkC0v6ED— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 18, 2019

(via Kottke)