YouTube: Excellent Documentary on China

[Wyvern]

It will make you think twice before buying cheap Chinese tuba or anything else made in China.

If things in the states are anything like in the UK, you will find it very difficult to avoid buying goods made in China. When I've examined stuff purchased once out of the packaging back home, I would say 90% are made in China ranging from the shower head in my bathroom, the Samsung laptop computer in front of me, to the shirt on my back. Today seems like China is indeed the factory of the world!

It is a good film, which I remember when first broadcast in the UK.

[Steve Marcus]

Approximately 85% of the traditional (acoustic) pianos being built in the world today come from China.

The number of pianos being built in Japan and South Korea is a fraction of the quantity that were built there as recently as 10 years ago. The only two Japanese acoustic piano companies surviving are Yamaha and Kawai; the majority of both companies' pianos are not being built in Japan. (Kawai is assembling all of the the Steinway-designed Boston pianos in Japan with the exception of one vertical model that is assembled in Indonesia.)

Decades ago, there were literally hundreds of piano builders in the US.

Today there are...

three.