China's current piano craze is in marked contrast to the situation during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when the piano was viewed as being ideologically abhorent, being described as a coffin-like "black box in which the notes rattled around like the bones of the bourgeoise" (a quotation from Trelawny). Consequently, Liu Shikun, probably one of the best classical pianists in China at the time, was subjected to cruel political persecution, and another talented pianist, Fou Ts'ong, was forced to flee to Great Britain. (In fact, the Cultural Revolution was a difficult period for classical music in general. For example, performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony were banned because the lyrics of its choral finale celebrate the brotherhood of man, thus negating the Marxist notion of class struggle!)
Now, however, the situation is quite different. Trelawny notes that stores selling pianos in a major city like Shanghai are quite numerous, and that piano schools are doing a roaring business, with one school having 14 branches just in Beijing.
Two places in China can be considered as symbols of the country's obsession with the instrument. One is in the city of Guangzhou, southern China's industrial powerhouse. In Guangzhou, the Pearl River Piano Company manufactures pianos on a large scale--according to Trelawny, in 2007 their factory produced 100,000 pianos (we have a Pearl River piano in our apartment in Beijing, which cost about 11,000 Chinese yuan, or about US$1,700 at the current exchange rate). The other place is also in southern China. Lying in the harbor of Xiamen, a port located along China's southeastern coast north of Hong Kong, is the island of Gulangyu. Once a Western enclave with numerous foreign consulates, this island with its almost-Mediterranean ambiance is sometimes called "Piano Island." I have heard or read two explanations for this title--one is that the name comes from the fact that the sound of pianos being played used to be heard throughout the island (Gulangyu has been home to a number of talented classical musicians in China); the other is that the name comes from the fact that the island is home to China's only piano museum, featuring many classic or unique pianos, which my family visited in February 2011.
As suggested above, piano lessons are considered de rigeur for many middle class children in China, and as Trelawny tells us, "lessons are taken extremely seriously, parents sit in and make copious notes [something my wife seems to do during our daughter's lessons!], students are expected to practice for three or four hours a day [not in my family, though--I think this is way too serious!]" From my own observations, it would seem that all the standard piano method books used in the U.S. for aspiring pianists are available in Chinese editions, like the Czerny and Hanon books. Even the venerable John Thompson series, so familiar to several generations of piano students in the U.S., has been translated into Chinese. I have noticed that there are even piano lessons on television, appearing on China Central Television's music channel. During this program, a small number of selected students, mainly children, listen to a piano teacher explaining the correct way of playing a practice piece (from Czerny, I believe), and then are given a chance to play the piece and to listen to the teacher's comments on their playing.
In the end, what has all this "piano fever" led to? Some Chinese parents have been wiling to make great sacrifices for their child's development as a pianist--a friend of my wife actually moved to Australia and then to the U.S. in order to get the best teachers for her daughter--perhaps hoping their child will become a super-star in the classical music world like the celebrated Chinese pianists Lang Lang (pictured above) or Li Yundi. On the other hand, according to my wife at least, this enthusiasm for the piano often wanes as young people begin to encounter increasingly heavy amounts of schoolwork as they approach the all-important national entrance examination for college. I seem to recall at least one student of mine commenting that she hadn't studied the piano for several years before entering our university because her academic workload had been so heavy. Apparently, for many Chinese parents, an enthusiam for music still must give way to a more practical concern with getting into college, which is viewed as the means of ensuring a bright future.