Pianos ready for assembly in a factory in Luoshe town, East China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

There is a small town in East China's Zhejiang Province where most villagers can not only play the piano but also make a good fortune by making pianos. The town accounts for one seventh of pianos made in China.

Luoshe, a town located in Zhejiang's Deqing county, with an area of 3.35 square kilometers, is home to more than 100 piano manufacturing enterprises. More than 50,000 pianos were produced and exported to more than 20 countries and regions such as Europe and Southeast Asia in 2020.

Currently, more than 3,000 local residents make a living by making pianos, a local industry that can be dated back 30 years ago.

Luoshe used to be a mining town, however, since China's economic reform and opening-up policy was adopted in 1978, the residents across the country were encouraged to start businesses. This was when Wang Huilin, a manager at a glass factory sensed an opportunity, brought four piano technicians from Shanghai city and established the first piano factory in Luoshe.

This small business became the frontrunner for the development of Luoshe piano industry, which has gradually developed into a hub for the piano industry in China.

Going abroad

Now, three decades later, the second generation of piano makers have taken over the business from their fathers, trying to take the domestic brands overseas.

"A piano, composed of more than 8,000 parts, requires over 300 procedures and seven tuning processes before it is completed, but we have mastered the procedures," said Jin Yicheng, who is in charge of Zhejiang Yueyun Piano Co, adding that all the components can be found within the town.

Jin is a second generation of his family business. The factory now produces 50,000 pianos per year and over 90 percent of the grand pianos are exported to the Middle East, the Europe and the US. Compared with foreign competitors, pianos made in the town are much cheaper yet are of equal quality, for this reason they saw an annual growth of 20 percent in overseas orders.

Although the coronavirus pandemic hit the industry hard, orders has now recovered to 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels and new orders have been booked till July and August, Jin said.

Despite the advantage in price and manufacturing chain, for companies like Jin's, it takes them a long way to be recognized by foreign customers.

"In the early years, it was widely thought that the piano was a Western musical instrument and Chinese companies can only copy its shape but not make its soul," Jin said. "It needs a long time to convince our clients."

One challenge is the gap between Chinese enterprises and foreign enterprises in the formulation and implementation of standards, Jin said.

"It is difficult to keep every piano fined tuned and maintain high levels of quality. The whole process needs finely trained technic workers," he said, "It may take a beginner three months to be familiar with building, polishing, stringing, and painting process, however, in order to master the skills and reach the standard it may take more than five years." 

In addition to standards, like other industries, the piano making business also relies on research and development output and it is some unnoticed difference in the design of the piano that makes the sound it produced, where Chinese piano manufacturers have to make a breakthrough, said Han Zhijie, owner of J.SDER Piano Co, another second generation family business.

His factory now has piano exports to Japan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Israel and Malaysia.

A worker tunes the piano in a factory in Luoshe town, East China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

Industry upgrade

To make up for the talent and research weakness, the local government is encouraging companies to work with music colleges in nearby Shanghai and Zhejiang to promote the transformation and upgrading of piano enterprises.

Meanwhile the town also attached great importance to the cultivation of local talent and manufacturing excellence, to encourage more young people to stay and work in the area. 

For the next step, the town is going to build a four-star tourist attraction that integrates piano manufacturing, music tourism and cultural creativity, according to local government.

Second generation craftsmen like Han and Jin have witnessed of the development of the town, now having grown into a piano center from the mining land, however, there is still much to be done to take domestic brand overseas by their efforts.

"When I was a little kid, Luoshe used to be a town which relied on the mining industry and the roads were covered with dust, but now you can hear the music walking around," Jin said.

"I believe the piano industry remains a sunshine industry and has a bright future," Jin said.