Classical music: Once a despised symbol of bourgeois decadence, the piano now holds a revered place in the new China – and Steinway plans to capitalize on the change

By Jacob Stockinger

In China, the piano is not what it used to be for many decades.

Especially during the era of Chairman Mao Zedong, the piano became a symbol of Western culture and bourgeois decadence that the Communist leader and his followers rejected.

But with the recent economic resurgence of China and its emphasis on education – coupled to the “tiger mom” phenomenon — the piano has become a status symbol.

The Ear earlier ran a piece on the way Western classical music is treated in today’s China versus how it was treated during the Cultural Revolution.

Here is a link to that background story:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/classical-music-how-did-western-classical-music-fare-in-china-during-the-cultural-revolution-and-today/

And this past week, The New York Times featured an extended story about the future of the piano in China – along with the future in China of the Steinway piano company, the most famous maker of pianos in the world.

Here is a link to that fascinating story that certainly suggests that the center of the classical piano culture is shifting from Western Europe and North America to Asian and specifically China:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/business/international/steinways-grand-ambitions-in-china.html?_r=0

 

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Arts, Chairman Mao, Chamber music, China, Classical music, Communism, Communist, Competition, Europe, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mao-Zedong, mom, Music, North America, Piano, Steinway, tiger, tiger mom, U.S., United States