ピアノと中国 - Living, Loving, Thinking, Again

Yang Yang “Beyond the Mechanics” China Daily November 30 2014

中国では、子どもにピアノを習わせる親が1990年代初め以降急増している。そのひとつの契機は、1990年前半に北京の中央音楽学院（CCOM）*1がピアノ検定を始めて、ピアノの級を持っていると上級学校への進学に有利になるということだったという。後に中央政府が初級中学や高級中学に対して入試時にピアノ検定を考慮することを禁止したが、それでもピアノ熱は収まらなかった。しかし、多くの人にとって、子ども時代に無理矢理ピアノの稽古をさせられたことはトラウマ的な記憶となっている。中国ではどのくらいの子どもがピアノを習っているのか。ピアニストの李雲迪*2の推定では4000万から5000万の間。これはカナダの人口よりも多い。また、2014年夏には、北京だけで8000人がピアノ検定に応募した。

(…) performing skills are emphasized far more than musical expression, and people bloindly push their kids to higher and higher levels of proficiency.
Zhang Boyu, president of CCOM Press and former dean of the musicology department of CCOM, comparea piano learning in China to sport training.
“People have overemohasized the skills, overlooking music's cultural value,” he says. “Yes, in the very beginning, proficiency testscan encourage or prompt children to learn a musical instrument, but essentially, there is no need to do those tests at all. Music is music.”
“It's great that we have soWang Yujia*3, who are internatinally famous. But they do not represent the general level of musical culture in China,” Zhang added.
“Chinese people generally don't know how to appreciate piano music from the West, and they are even less interested in Chinese classical music such as the Kunqu Opera *4 or in learning to play the guqin( a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of zither family) *5.”

ここでは、ピアノ演奏は指の運動に還元されてしまっている。上級になればなるほど、要請される運指は複雑になる。また、中央音楽学院は中国全土40箇所以上で検定試験を行い、さらに検定のための音楽教室を開催したり、教材を販売している。つまり、ピアノ検定はCCOMにとって大きな収益源なのだ。
さて、同じ日のChina Dailyに載ったYang Yang “Piano makers ride musical surge in China”という記事によると、20-13年の中国都市部の世帯のピアノ所有率は３％で、2020年までに４％に上がることが予測されている（先進国では20〜30％）。また、中国は何時の間にか「世界最大のピアノ生産国」になっていた。2013年の生産台数は376,000台。全世界で生産されるピアノの80％が中国製ということになる。中国国内最大手の「珠江鋼琴（Pearl River Piano）」*6の2013年の生産台数は136,000台で、中国国内市場の35％、国際市場の25％を占めている。また、今年10月には、スタインウェイ *7の上海支社が「亜細亜太平洋本部」に格上げされた。独逸のメーカーBluthner*8は2006年に広州で中国現地生産を開始したが、現在、河北省衡水*9に新工場を建設中である。

おまけ。中国政府のトンデモ新政策。日本の右派が真似する可能性もあり；

China sends artists to the countryside in Mao-style cultural campaign
Ruling Communist party to make film and TV staff work in villages and rural communities to form ‘correct view of art’
Agence France-Presse in Beijing
The Guardian, Tuesday 2 December 2014 08.01 GMT

China will send artists, film-makers, and TV personnel to live among the masses in rural areas in order to “form a correct view of art”, state media have said.
The move is the latest by the ruling Communist party to echo the Mao Zedong era, during which intellectuals and others were “sent down” to labour among peasants in the countryside.
It comes weeks after the president, Xi Jinping, told a group of artists not to chase popularity with “vulgar” works but promote socialism instead, with state media comparing his remarks to a speech by Mao.
China’s media watchdog “will organise film and TV series production staff on a quarterly basis to go to grassroots communities, villages and mining sites to do field study and experience life”, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Scriptwriters, directors, broadcasters and anchors will also be sent to work and live for at least 30 days “in ethnic minority and border areas, and areas that made major contributions to the country’s victory in the revolutionary war”, Xinhua added.
The move “will be a boost in helping artists form a correct view of art and create more masterpieces”, Xinhua said, citing the media administration.
Beijing imposes tight controls over art and culture, and ideological restrictions have tightened under Xi, with authorities censoring Ai Weiwei and other artists it perceives as challenging its right to rule.
Joseph Cheng, professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong, described the move as a Mao-style “rectification campaign” aimed at silencing potential critics as Xi leads a far-reaching anti-graft sweep.
“Xi Jinping is under considerable pressure, because his anti-corruption campaign certainly has hurt a lot of vested interests,” Cheng said. “This is again a time of pressure tactics on the intelligentsia and on the critics.”
The edict harkens back to the era of communist China’s founder, when popular art was little more than propaganda, but Cheng said that whereas Mao’s Cultural Revolution was aimed at the entire intelligentsia, the current move was more targeted.
“This campaign is a bit different in the sense that as long as you don’t challenge the authorities – as long as you keep quiet – you are safe to keep making money,” he said.
In October, Xi told a group of artists that they should not become “slaves to the market”. The state-run China Daily likened his remarks to a well-known speech by Mao in the 1940s which outlined his view that the arts should serve politics.
“Art and culture cannot develop without political guidance,” the paper said, congratulating Xi for “emphasising the integration of ideology and artistic values”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/02/china-artists-masses-mao-style-cultural-campaign

*1:http://www.ccom.edu.cn/

*2:http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/artistmicrosite/?ART_ID=LIYUN http://www.yundimusic.com/

*3:王羽佳。http://www.yujawang.com/

*6:http://www.pearlriverpiano.com/ See eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_River_Piano_Group http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8F%A0%E6%B1%9F%E9%92%A2%E7%90%B4

*8:http://www.bluethner.de/ http://www.bluethnerworld.com/ See eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%BCthner http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%96%E3%83%AA%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC

*9:http://www.hengshui.gov.cn/ See eg. http://baike.baidu.com/view/7807.htm