February 11, 2009 4:27 PM
- Text
The Sound Of Music Comes From China
(CBS)
Brooklyn sixth-grader Haley Gillia is learning to make music. That's making a job for Li Xuemei, the daughter of a Chinese peasant farmer.
"I'm happy that my violins go around the world," Xuemei says.
She works in Xiqiao, China, a city that is to violin-making what Detroit is to cars, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen.
From its 40-some factories, a violin rolls off human assembly lines on average of one a minute, every day, every week — more than 600,000 a year. Most violins once came from Europe; now, China is the world's biggest producer and biggest exporter.
It's not just violins. China also makes the most guitars, cellos and even pianos.
But handmade violins are the focus, selling for less than $200 in America. They are so cheap because the hands that make them belong to workers earning about 70 cents an hour.
"We work hard," says Li Shu, who owns the town's largest factory, "to make the best medium-priced violins in the world."
Knocking off the competition to become the world's No. 1 violin maker is not enough for China. From being the biggest, it has set its sights on being the best.
To do that, the government sent Professor Zheng Quan to study violin making at its 16th-century source in Italy.
Now he teaches students who will spend 10 years learning their craft. Here, it's not about production; it is about perfection.
"For Chinese people, I think we can make a really good work. We have very good hand," he said.
China is now winning the gold medals at world violin making competitions and praise from violin craftsman like American David Segal.
"For the manufacture of Chinese violins, they are fantastic," he says.
Music, it is said, takes up where words leave off. Chinese master craftsmen today are making violins that, like a Stradivarius, may sing to us for centuries to come.
"I'm happy that my violins go around the world," Xuemei says.
She works in Xiqiao, China, a city that is to violin-making what Detroit is to cars, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen.
From its 40-some factories, a violin rolls off human assembly lines on average of one a minute, every day, every week — more than 600,000 a year. Most violins once came from Europe; now, China is the world's biggest producer and biggest exporter.
It's not just violins. China also makes the most guitars, cellos and even pianos.
But handmade violins are the focus, selling for less than $200 in America. They are so cheap because the hands that make them belong to workers earning about 70 cents an hour.
"We work hard," says Li Shu, who owns the town's largest factory, "to make the best medium-priced violins in the world."
Knocking off the competition to become the world's No. 1 violin maker is not enough for China. From being the biggest, it has set its sights on being the best.
To do that, the government sent Professor Zheng Quan to study violin making at its 16th-century source in Italy.
Now he teaches students who will spend 10 years learning their craft. Here, it's not about production; it is about perfection.
"For Chinese people, I think we can make a really good work. We have very good hand," he said.
China is now winning the gold medals at world violin making competitions and praise from violin craftsman like American David Segal.
"For the manufacture of Chinese violins, they are fantastic," he says.
Music, it is said, takes up where words leave off. Chinese master craftsmen today are making violins that, like a Stradivarius, may sing to us for centuries to come.
Latest Now in CBS Evening News
- Evening News Online, 02.09.12
- One mortgage mess culprit: Signature mills
- Remembering Kodak cameras
- Obama frees 10 states from "No Child Left Behind"
- Assad continues relentless attack on Homs
- Inside the job of a robo-signer
- Big banks, gov't officials strike $25B deal
- Civilians bear the brunt of Syrian assault
- Oral history of N. Ireland strife raises dilemma
- Repairman reminisces as Kodak retires its cameras
- Evening News Online, 02.08.12
- Female soldiers tell stories from the frontlines
- Behind winter's wild weather
- Gas prices continue to creep up
- GOP turns up heat on Obama contraceptive law
- Do Santorum wins signal fundamental change in GOP?
- Are Santorum wins good for GOP's future?
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook
on CBS News
- 2nd depo sought for convicted Fla. Ponzi schemer
- Russians alarmed by rash of teenage suicides
- Donald Trump blasts plans for Scottish wind farm
- Is the new VW Beetle diesel worth the money?
on Facebook
- Adele sings a cappella for Anderson Cooper
- Tenn. father charged with murdering couple who"unfriended" daughter on Facebook
- Josh Powell had "incestuous" images on his home computer, authorities say
on CBS News
