China’s Piano Dreams Are Fading for a Cash-Strapped Middle Class
Once a status symbol, the instrument is experiencing a double-digit drop in sales.
Workers adjust pianos at a factory in Yichang, China, last year.
Photo: Xinhua/Shutterstock
Rosie had little choice but to drop weekly piano lessons for her 7-year-old daughter this year. The income she made organizing international travel for Chinese tourists evaporated during the pandemic, while her husband’s salary and bonus as a bank worker were slashed in half over the past two years as a result of greater regulatory scrutiny of China’s financial industry.
“It costs a lot to learn to play the piano. Now the economy is bad,” says Rosie, who lives in Beijing and asked to use her English-language name because she wanted to protect her privacy in discussing personal finances. “The best steel should be reserved for the blade. I need to spend my limited budget more cost-effectively.”