How the Piano Became Chinese

In planning a trip to China in 1601, Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci gathered gifts including a clavichord. At that time, China had many musical instruments and traditions but nothing like the clavichord, explains journalist Sheila Melvin for Caixin: “That's why Ricci chose it, hoping that the unusual instrument would so excite the emperor's curiosity that he would agree to receive Ricci – who could then explain the precepts of Catholicism and, in his wildest dreams, get the emperor to convert, and with him, all of China.” The emperor was curious and sent four musicians to Ricci who arranged to teach them four songs. But he never met the emperor or orchestrated a mass conversion. Chinese elite appreciated the keyboard instrument that eventually evolved into the modern piano. Melvin estimates that tens of millions of Chinese have taken piano lessons. China contributes to the world’s leading pianists and produced nearly 80 percent of the world’s pianos in 2013. – YaleGlobal