sheer power of numbers

[ingunite]

For those who are already familiar with the topic, I apologize for the redundancy...
Coming from a nation of less than two million on a good day, I find these numbers mind blowing.

(...)Between thirty million and a hundred million children are said to be learning piano, violin, or both, depending on which source you consult. (...)(from NewYorker)
and
(...)China, with an estimated 30 million piano students and 10 million violin students, is on an opposite trajectory. Comprehensive tests to enter the top conservatories now attract nearly 200,000 students a year, compared with a few thousand annually in the 1980s, according to the Chinese Musicians Association.(...)(from New York Times)

Some other articles put the number of piano students in China in the neighbourhood of 100+million.

Even in USSR at its heyday with the wide spread network of music schools and generally sound and thoughtful music education policy never approached anything like these numbers. At least, I don't think so.
 
It kinda ties in with the topic du jour of tiger mothers discussed to death in New York Times and parenting news circles.

There were numerous Korean, Japanese, and Chinese contestants at the Chopin Festival 2010.
True, they did no get very far.

So... Will quantity produce quality, will the numbers keep growing, or will the fad peter out gradually?

Comments?

Read more at
https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/07/07/080707crat_atlarge_ross?currentPage=all
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/arts/music

[richard black]

Will quantity produce quality,

I suspect so. Of course there's a strong element of fad, but I've met plenty of Chinese students here in London who are clearly fine musicians closely attuned to the ideas of Western culture. Why ever not? I think I'll start learning Chinese now!

[ingunite]

Those are my sentiments, too.
It's just the sheer numbers that I find so astonishing. If they all decided to get together, what a grand concert that would be! Can you imagine a country equivalent of France, Germany, or UK with every citizen, including infants being a more or less competent pianist?
I guess if one counted the piano students of all European countries together, one would get a healthy number, too. I wonder if there are world statistics on this subject.

[gyzzzmo]

First, you'll have take those numbers with a grain of salt, it's China afterall.
Also you have to see it in perspective since there live almost twice as many people in China as in entire Europe, and four times as many people as in the USA.
And they have a very different educational system.

But there are indeed a 'shitload' of chinese people who are able to play the piano or are still studying it, and quantity (talent-wise) eventually leads to some people with very high quality.

[ahinton]

First, you'll have take those numbers with a grain of salt, it's China afterall.

Perhaps - yet one might at the same time be given to wonder why the Chinese would be especially keen to advertise to the world that they such a high proportion of its population is currently studying Western musical instruments on which they are playing mainly Western music...

Also you have to see it in perspective since there live almost twice as many people in China as in entire Europe, and four times as many people as in the USA.

Indeed; around one in every five people on planet Earth are Chinese.

And they have a very different educational system.

But then so do other nations!

But there are indeed a 'shitload' of chinese people who are able to play the piano or are still studying it, and quantity (talent-wise) eventually leads to some people with very high quality.

No, it doesn't; only the talent itself does, especially when well unrtured. It doesn't matter how many children receive piano lessons, talent for playing the instrument cannot be instilled where it doesn't exist (although it can of course be encouraged).

Best,

Alistair

[gyzzzmo]

No, it doesn't; only the talent itself does, especially when well unrtured. It doesn't matter how many children receive piano lessons, talent for playing the instrument cannot be instilled where it doesn't exist (although it can of course be encouraged).

Best,

Alistair

The point is; the more people play piano, the more talents will be discovered. I have no doubt that there are plenty of great talents for for example playing the piano, but wich have never been discovered/developed because of the lack of proper circumstances.

And China is a very nationalistic country wich always seems to come with boasting superiorism.

Gyzzzmo

[ahinton]

The point is; the more people play piano, the more talents will be discovered. I have no doubt that there are plenty of great talents for for example playing the piano, but wich have never been discovered/developed because of the lack of proper circumstances.

As I myself said, such talent can, of course, be encouraged.

And China is a very nationalistic country wich always seems to come with boasting superiorism.

All the more reason, then, to consider questioning this large-scale emphasis on Western musical instruments and music in present-day China.

Best,

Alistair

[ingunite]

If the present trend continues, I would imagine the conventional/traditional (whatever the appropriate term is) piano playing style in China could and almost certainly will easily morph into something quite unexpected, at least for Westerners.
As piano culture in China matures, I do not think that they would keep following and perpetuating Russian lyrical style or any other traditional Western school, instead of intentionally or unintentionally going their own path...
A music conservative like me finds it melancholy to think that, perhaps in 10 years after the Chinese have finished absorbing all they want from Western piano music heritage, they would go on to successfully foster some kind of a national piano playing tradition, probably turning towards their own music tradition and creating some hybrid that would become dominant in piano world.
Sorry about the garbled thoughts. I guess what it boils down to is that I would have to reeducate my ears.