Declining piano sales a sign of shift in focus

Born into a family of limited means in a small county in Northeast China's Liaoning province, Zhang Xin was envious of her classmates who had the opportunity to learn to play the piano.

When she became a mother, she did not want her daughter to miss out in the same way. So when her daughter Wang Yuhan started kindergarten, Zhang bought a piano and signed her daughter up for piano classes.

One day Zhang returned home from work to find that Wang had quarreled with her grandmother, who usually supervised her piano practice. Zhang learned that Wang was overwhelmed by schoolwork, but her grandmother was still insisting on an hour of piano practice a day, which led to the quarrel.