Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Are Chinese pianos really inferior?

I have to wonder how much historical stereotyping may be in play here. For years we've heard how Chinese/Asian trained classical pianists may be "technically proficient but lack feeling/soul/understanding/nuance etc., etc.," which to me always struck me as an insidious and slightly racist position. It's taken decades to chip away at that position, and the likes of talent such as Yuja Wang, Yundi Li and others (not to mention Lang Lang, though he certainly has a slew of detractors for his individual style).

I don't have much experience with Chinese pianos outside of a couple of Hailun grands and Palatino uprights in friends' houses, but everything I've seen indicates that they are excellent pianos at the prices they sell for.

My guess is that it's just going to be hard to change the opinions of some folks, who will speak with certitude about how Chinese manufacturers are incapable of producing high quality products, all the while the Chinese manufacturing industry continues to improve, innovate, expand, and eventually take over the market from everyone else.

Hailun has quite a few innovators from other brands on their payroll, including Stephen Paulello, Sibin Zlatkovic from Feurich, and George Emerson from Baldwin and Mason & Hamlin. As I understand it, the modus operandus for many Chinese companies is to try to leapfrog other companies, rather than to start from scratch. So instead of starting with a Paulo Fazioli, they reverse engineer (and yes, steal the intellectual property) from the work folks like Fazioli have done, then try to out-engineer and out-pace them from there. It seems to have worked for them in other areas like sports (they went from almost nothing in the Olympic games to being a rival to the U.S. and Russia in a short time), and technology. Not sure how successful this approach is in the long run, but my guess is with a billion and a half people, there is a Paolo Fazioli or two lurking in the population. Imagine a Chinese Fazioli standing on the shoulders of the Italian Fazioli and starting his or her work from there.

https://hailun-pianos.com/engineers/

I've heard many Chinese/Asian trained pianists, and like pianists from everywhere else there are those with a deep level of understanding and musicianship, there are those who have a fine digital technique but who's playing lacks any insight, and there are those with a dreadful technique in which case you'd never know what kind of insight they had. I've heard many British, American, French, Russian, whatever pianists who all have the same traits.

There is a certain amount of truth in the idea that there are more Asian students with a better technique than there are Europeans or Americans, and let's not forget that as classical music training in Europe and America is regarded as a kind of luxury item from a bygone age, in Asia it's regarded as essential in many places - at the risk of monolithic thinking - but classical piano has taken off in a big way in Asia, and it is somewhat dead in the water in Europe and America. Yes there are websites promoting this and that in Europe, concerts all over Vienna, London, Paris, Milan, (well, there were until COVID-19), but you go outside these places into any non-capital city and you'll see the local symphony orchestra performing with someone like Boris Giltberg in a 2500 seater hall and there's 150 to 200 people in the audience. No joke.

Perhaps that happens in China too, but it seems like it's more valued there.

There's not a more chinese word than Huawei and people has accepted with no problem all over the world. Or they could take English words that refer in some vague way to its chinese origins. They have many options if they are able to get over their german fetishism

You've got a point there, I guess. And another example is Xiaomi. But have we really accepted it worldwide? I think in some countries, it's not so accepted yet.

Well, this is funny because in Bulgarian "huawei" very closely resembles "the di*k is blown" It's a common joke. In commercials they make sure they pronounce it in a slightly different way.

I think a big part of the problem is that the Performance piano buyers have to overcome their own German fetishism. My 2 cents.

The naming may be directed at the internal market in China. For the longest time, if you gave clothing or fashion items a foreign name, they sold better in China. I remember visiting back in the 90s, and there was a line of clothing called FUN. The signs in the stores said "FUN: Fashion of the USA." As proof, the sign featured a couple Russian-looking models standing in a wheat field by an old Ford pickup truck. One of the slogans on the shirts said "Everyone wants something to fun!" They sold because the average Chinese person at the time thought these were American products.

Chinese are very name brand conscious, and will pay more simply for the prestige of a foreign brand. Now the average Chinese person's savvy about foreign brands is much greater now than it was in the 90s, but the preference for foreign stuff remains to an extent. That may be an explanation for the popularity of the stencil names among the piano makers in China.

Somewhere on this forum someone posted an article about how middle class Chinese purchase European made pianos as a matter of prestige, whereas European parents purchase Chinese made pianos to save money.

I can totally see that.

J&J May I ask why you say that ?
I know you love Bösendorfer pianos, they are made in Austria so really quote Germanic.
Did you know at one time some parts of Germany were once part of Austria including where Sauter
originated from. Also what Eastern Europe -- Estonia ,Petrof and of course Italy with Fazioli and Shultz & Polmann should people stop buying pianos there as well ?
Should people get over buying Japanese pianos ?
The answer is simple ,European piano makers , and Japanese piano makers are good and they have great reputations.
Germany and the piano have deap historic and musical roots.
Do I want China to get over this fetishe for German pianos., YES I DO !

Besides in ChIna and here Chinese people often think Steinways pianos are German !
(I do believe NY Steinways pianos are American or am I wrong )
There seems to be more to these obsessions, than just that they are German)

In the internet age I think most people will know Chinese pianos with German names like Ritmuller are made in China. I don't think many will care either way about or be fooled by the non-Chinese name of the piano. I certainly don't.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager a year's pay that most people wouldn't make that connection at all. I bet most buyers don't even know Bosendorfer or Grotrian are names of piano brands.

I think those that have been very pianists (amateurs) would know a few good European pianos especially if they have been playing for while.Names like Steinways, Bechstein Bösendorfer I think
are quite well known.Others like Sauter, Estonia, Seiler are much less known.

I recently played a Scheidmayor stencel (Korean made), really quite a nice tone ! When I lifted the lid I could see it was marked Renner with the usual oval label.I made sure to ask again if it was really made in Korea as I thought the sales person may have meant Kawai. (Kawai made a few of these in the 80's. (so did Ibach.)
By the price of course one knew it was a stencel.The piano was a used piano but still in fairly new
condition. I wondered if it really really had much Renner in the action as the price was really quite low.

That's why a consumer guide should scrupulously avoid even the perception of bias.


Thanks for the update, TD. I don't know why, but I would have thought that the list of contributors would be longer, but at least there's only one dealer on it. Not that I have anything against dealers, but in this capacity there's a conflict of interest, and with no dealers it would be eliminated (at least that form of conflict).

How would Most amateur pianists piano shopping even be aware of anything other than Steinway, Yamaha and Kwai? If I were looking to buy a piano within 150 mile radius of my house that would be all I would see. We have people ask questions all the time here about the other two models that are seen at Steinway dealers, and they seem to have no idea where they are made. Not everybody reads a forum or knows about Piano Buyer.

This is odd to me because, while I live in an urban area, it is not a top-10 US city in size. And yet, I am not far from Yamaha, Bosendorfer, Schimmel, Estonia, Kawai, Grotrian, Fazioli, Mason & Hamlin, Sauter, and Steinway dealers. There also are 50-100 used and rebuilt pianos for sale at these dealers

I suspect your urban area is not 30,000.

Quite possibly most shoppers will be parents out to buy something for their children starting piano lessons and will have some recommendation on what to get, and where to get it, from their teachers. If that advice is to go to the local dealer than no, probably, they won't be aware of anything else, except that most dealers seem to now be offering one other budget brand as well so they would see that one. Possibly that would be the recommendation they received.

Those aside, most people making a substantial purchase like a piano do some research. And even the most casual look on the internet, even just browsing ebay, makes you aware of many other piano brands, very quickly. This isn't an age of ignorance any more where knowledge is limited to what you can see within a days walk of your village.