Town stringing together success

'Violin capital of China' creating jobs, artistic appreciation

Huangqiao, long famed for its sesame cakes, is now home to more than 230 violin companies, earning it the nickname "the violin capital of China".

Li Kunyu, 12, lives in Huangqiao, Jiangsu province, but does not want to take over his parents' convenience store or learn to make sesame cakes from his grandparents as many have done for generations in the town.

Instead, he dreams of being a violinist.

He has been playing the instrument for five years, and last year, when the local community held a Spring Festival gala, he performed the Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower in public.

"There were over 300 people in the audience, including my parents," Li said. "Afterward, my mom held me tight and said she was so proud of me."

Like Li, most young people in the town of about 200,000 can play the stringed instrument.

A compulsory violin course is taught in the first and second grades at Huangqiao Primary School, and older students are free to choose whether to continue the course.

"The violin is our toy," Li said. "We're all eager to play it well because almost every family here owns a violin, and they are even able to make this musical instrument."

According to Wang Xiaoyun, the town chief, over 30,000 employees produce 700,000 stringed instruments in Huangqiao every year, including violins, violas and cellos. The town accounts for about 30 percent of all violins made worldwide.

She said the annual output value of Huangqiao violins has reached 2.4 billion yuan ($380 million).

But why has the violin, more commonly associated with Western classical music, taken hold in a rural Chinese town?

In the 1960s, violin factories began to appear in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Several Huangqiao natives who had made violins in Shanghai returned home and opened a small workshop.

Li Shu, 66, was an apprentice there at that time. In 1971, he crafted Huangqiao's first violin. He is now chairman of Fengling Musical Instruments, the largest violin manufacturer in town.

The company exports violins to more than 80 countries, including the United States, Germany and Italy, with annual export sales of $20 million.

"It's no easy thing to have Chinese-made Western musical instruments enter overseas markets," Li Shu said.

In early 1995, an American musical instrument company was preparing to participate in an expo. It needed 95 sample instruments produced within two months. Li Shu said he jumped at the opportunity.

Normally, the task would have taken three months to finish. He and his fellow craftsmen had to work overtime, and spent 53 days producing the high-quality samples.

"This cooperation won the American company's heart. By the end of that year, half of Fengling's products were sold to the US market through an American company," he said.

Li Shu adopts different marketing strategies to meet the needs of different markets. Europe, for example, demands high-quality instruments, while the Asian market seeks affordable violins.

Fengling can produce nearly 120 types of violins, with prices ranging from hundreds of yuan to more than 100,000 yuan.

However, in Li Shu's eyes, it is technological progress that has made violins in the town more competitive.

To make quality violins, the wood must be dried for more than 50 years, minimizing water, sugar and resin content. Fengling pioneered a microbiological technology that can remove large amounts of impurities, shortening the drying time by over 20 years.

The violin industry has not just created jobs for Huangqiao residents, but enriched their lives outside of work as well.

After establishing a cultural and art center in cooperation with a local opera troupe, Fengling has trained more than 6,000 workers to play the violin, piano, guitar and other instruments.

Meanwhile, the playing of musical instruments has been promoted in primary schools in Huangqiao.

Town chief Wang said students not only learn about their hometown industry, but also develop musical hobbies and help integrate Chinese and Western musical cultures.

The local government now plans to invest about 5 billion yuan to build a musical theme town covering 3.8 square kilometers.

Xinhua