There's a cultural quirk buried in the article, when the technician uses his or her "very long thumbnail (in lieu of a spudger/guitar pick)."
Some Chinese men grow one fingernail quite long as a sign that they do not toil in the fields (else the nail would be broken)[1]. It has been for some time a symbol of high status. Yet here we see a long fingernail employed specifically to aid manual labor.
I now wonder if there are budget repair guys walking around Shenzhen appearing to show off their socioeconomic status but actually just hoping their nails don't break because it would make splitting open broken phones less convenient.
It’s funny how many different connotations can be conveyed by something as simple as fingernails. The cocaine pinky, false nails in pornography, some varieties of massage, as a status symbol, and classical/flamenco guitar playing come to mind.
I find even moderately long nails make throwing pots on a pottery wheel nearly impossible to do (well). So you can add no-fingerprints + short nails to the list under potter.
Violinists and pianists also have to keep their finger nails clipped because nails get in the way of hitting the key/string properly. Interestingly, this is opposite to some guitar/banjo/mandolin players, who keep their nails long to help with picking, as mentioned above.
This is the height of pedantry (and I apologize), but guitar/banjo/mandolin players are not really "opposite" to violinists--they all need to keep the fingernails of their fingerboard hands short. The difference is that the former may choose to keep the nails of their picking fingers long, whereas the fingernail length of a violinists' bow hand is almost inconsequential.
Some Chinese men grow one fingernail quite long as a sign that they do not toil in the fields (else the nail would be broken)[1]. It has been for some time a symbol of high status. Yet here we see a long fingernail employed specifically to aid manual labor.
I now wonder if there are budget repair guys walking around Shenzhen appearing to show off their socioeconomic status but actually just hoping their nails don't break because it would make splitting open broken phones less convenient.
[1] http://www.vagabondjourney.com/why-chinese-men-grow-long-fin...