Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Would you buy a piano made in China?

My $.02 on this. Extreme poverty still touches everyone in China, even though over 300 million have been lifted out of poverty into the middle class in the last 15-20 years. That still leaves more than double the population of the United States living in various states of poverty in China, much of it extreme. Therefore, the average Chinese can be very shortsighted and seemingly unconcerned with the adverse long-term effect of ill-gotten, short term gain. Faced with an extreme lack of resources and options, one must be creative. Knowing this reality, the Chinese government often turns a blind eye, and even helps its citizenry to overcome economic hurdles by whatever means necessary. They know theft is bad, but it’s better than poverty.

As shortsighted as its people may have to be to survive, the Chinese government, believe it or not, is playing the long game. Its early and continuing economic investment in Africa even while China could not feed its own people, building islands in the S. China Sea, investing huge amounts of money into the current 68-country Road and Belt initiative—these are all investments that will not pay off for decades. But that’s the thing: China thinks in decades while we in the West tend to think in years. I think the Chinese government is fully aware of its current bad reputation for cheap knockoffs, intellectual property theft, human rights violations, etc. They know that this is how they’ve been perceived for the last 20 years, and rightfully so. But how about the next 20, or 50, or 75? Does anyone really remember America’s intellectual property theft and human rights violations from the 19th century? Not really. Our collective memories tend to reset after a generation. Therefore, I think the Chinese people, like its government, are doing whatever it can to pull itself up now, and to try to achieve in 50 years what the West achieved for itself in the last 150. The West’s exploits during its economic rise wasn’t always pretty. China’s aren’t going to be either. Sometimes short-term gain is the only way to build the initial rungs of the ladder to long-term economic success.

So what does all this have to do with pianos? I guess my point is that we’re all on a spectrum. Currently, Western and Japanese piano manufacturers have matured into ethical enterprises with good quality control. I don’t know that they have always been that way. If buying Chinese is a problem for some people today, I get it. My prediction, however, is that 25 years from now that will seem as anachronistic as refusing to buy a piano because it was made in Germany or Japan.

All this being said, I have yet to try my first Chinese piano. Anybody have an extra Baldwin BP190 sitting around?

It's kind of ironic for me because last year I bought a rebuilt Mason & Hamlin (that absolutely love). After a long search, I realized that I wanted the American sound, but didn't want a Steinway. Most of the better Chinese made pianos (as I understand (?)) have a more European tone. Now M&H is making pianos in China, which probably are more American-like. Ugh. I'll just claim that my Boston made, golden age Model A is superior. But is it?

Well, I am very curious about the Yangtze River Concert Grand. Has anyone here played it?

From a consumer’s POV, it doesn’t matter where something is made.
What matters is the finished product.

All those other factors get priced in. If you’re worried about resale and loss, then you can probably lose more on a non-Chinese piano than you’ll spend in total on a Chinese piano. It’s all priced in.

I’m not arguing that you can’t get a lot of value from a Chinese piano. I believe you do. I’m just saying place of manufacture matters a lot to the whole package.

The fact that iPhones are manufactured in China does not seem to have affected their value or reputation.

I’m not against Chinese products, but you can’t convince me that in certain categories, Chinese product image is just not there yet.

If you could have any piano you wanted, but only one, for the same price -- or even for free -- and the same amount of effort was putting into prepping them all, wouldn't you pick the piano you liked best? Or would you be swayed by distractions like where it's made? Historically there's been a correlation between place of manufacture and perceived quality, but that gap is closing. It certainly has in Japan. Right?

What if the pianos you had to choose from were generic, had no markings? You might be surprised what you end up selecting.

I believe what has not been addressed in this thread is something I'd like to throw in to give it a little more perspective to differentiating.

The Hailun factory first of all is a manufacturing place and as such it does its job. In addition to producing its own brand and stencils, it also serves as a manufacturing site for designs that are not Chinese. I know that today's Feurich uprights and grands are manufactured in the Hailun factory, but some of them (such as the 218 grand) have been designed by Stephen Paulello and their final voicing, regulation and tuning is done here in Vienna. The voicing expert is someone with decades of experience, including working for Bechstein.

The creative value actually comes from Europe and China is just an inexpensive and experienced manufacturing place, just as in the electronics industry. Feurich as a company is registered in Austria and pays its taxes here and manufacturing in China is just a number for the cost of doing business. When design, Q&A and finishing touches are done in Europe, I am inclined to consider it a European product in terms of value created.

Just compare it to Apple. Manufacturing is done in China by third party producers, but hardware design and software development is American. I am confident that half of you or more own iPhones (I don't) and certainly consider it an American product. And just as there are cheap knock-offs from iPhones built in China, the real deal is something else and as such we should differentiate between pure manufacturing and actual value creation.

Disclaimer: I know the Feurich people in Vienna very well, but I don't have a working business relationship with them as piano makers and don't act as their internet marketing guy. I just recognize a good piano when I play one.