Klarinet Archive - Posting 000160.txt from 2003/01

From: Mark Gresham <mgresham@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: Chinese Clarinets
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 09:13:03 -0500

Bill Hausmann wrote:
> At 08:34 PM 1/7/2003 -0800, vwyman2 wrote:
>
>> Chinese consumer products are on the 'up' escalator with ever
>> increasing quality. After five years living in Hong Kong, I can
>> confirm that China made toilet paper never once scratched!
>
> Do not confuse bigotry with experience. If the only Chinese products
> marketed here are garbage, the only logical conclusion that can be
> reached is that ALL Chinese products are garbage. I must assume that
> the Chinese people are thoroughly capable of producing high quality
> products. It is simply that no evidence of that has yet reached these
> shores.

1) It is true that Chinese consumer products are improving.
2) It is also true that "consumer product" is probably not the most
attractive way of describing a clarinet.
3) Hong Kong is a "very special case" location in China, given that it
was a British Commonwealth entity until recently.
4) Yet since the transition, the manufacturing has been moving out of
Hong Kong to the surrounding areas, and is developing rapidly elsewhere.
5) Chinese cities, by experience of friends both Chinese and Anglo, have
changed (developed) remarkably in the last five to ten years,
particularly Bejing. (Olympics in 2008.) The adoption of more
"capitalist" methods has been a major influence. WTO membership is
having an impact.
6) The logical conclusion isn't necessarily that all Chinese products
are garbage if the garbage is only what makes it to the US. Yamaha is a
good example. The best Yamaha pianos by far are the "real" Japanese
ones, the ones assembled in Japan for the Japanese market; Yamaha USA
produces inferior pianos by comparison--though not "bad" ("assembled"
right here in Georgia--it's the band and orchestral instruments that are
assembled in Michigan). So it is quite possible that the lesser Chinese
clarinets are for export, but they're finding they have to improve to
compete. This as the case with Yamaha in "lower-tier" pianos, with new
competition from Korea and China, and "middle-tier" pianos with
significant competition coming from former Soviet-bloc countries of
eastern Europe. Also, the age and experience of the manufacturer plays
a role in quality of design and craft. I mean, these guys used to be
poor farmers... (which is what their own website says, not a bigoted
statement). I expect they might not have known soybeans about clarinets
when they jumped into manufacturing, but that "musical instrument
manufacturing" was just one opportunity on a list suggested by the
economic incentive programs of the PRC government.
(By contrast, after the "iron curtain" fell the former principal
trumpet for the Tallinin town brass band could no longer make a living
as a musician, so he became a succesful capitalist in computers and
electronic equipment.)

--
Mark Gresham, composer
mgresham@-----.com/
Lux Nova Press http://www.luxnova.com/
LNP Retail Webstore http://www.luxnova.com/lnpwebstore/

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