People learn to play guitar at a showroom of Natasha Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Zheng'an County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)
GUIYANG, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- If you own a guitar, there's a good chance it was crafted in Zheng'an, a small county tucked away in the mountains of southwest China.
Located in Guizhou Province, Zheng'an is the world's largest guitar producer, creating over 2.25 million instruments annually. One out of every seven guitars worldwide is made here.
But this was not the case over a decade ago. At one point, a third of all locals had left home to seek employment opportunities elsewhere as they struggled with poor transportation infrastructure and barren land.
STRIKING THE RIGHT CHORD
In 1997, Zheng Chuanjiu from Zheng'an became a migrant worker at a guitar factory in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province.
"I worked my way up from ordinary worker to manager," Zheng said. With his savings, he founded a guitar company in Guangzhou in 2007.
Zheng'an's guitar manufacturing journey began in 2012, following a directive from China's State Council that encouraged Guizhou Province to develop its industries.
A survey by the county revealed that up to 54,000 Zheng'an natives were already employed in the guitar manufacturing industry in places like Guangzhou. The county government decided to leverage the skills and experience of these workers to build a guitar industry where none had existed before.
Zheng became the first Zheng'an guitar maker to return home and relocate his factory to the Zheng'an guitar cultural industrial park. Today, the park is home to over 130 guitar companies and supporting enterprises.
"The local government offered a comprehensive support package for returning guitar artisans starting new businesses," Zheng said.
"The thriving local guitar industry can be credited to the hard work of our artisans," said Huang Dong, the county chief. "Their skills and capital have ignited the clustered development of the entire sector."
Experts view the industrial cluster as an important means to enhance China's micro-economic competitiveness and the growth of the private sector.
Indeed, a growing number of small cities and towns in China are well-positioned to benefit from characteristic industries ranging from guitars to wigs and cakes.
The mountainous town of Shuijiang in east China's Jiangxi Province is home to 93 wig enterprises that sell their products to dozens of countries across the globe. In Jiangxi's Zixi County, nearly half of the 100,000 permanent residents are engaged in the baking industry, giving rise to over 60 bakery brands that collectively have stores in more than 1,000 cities and towns across China.
NEW TUNES
Statistics indicate that the annual global demand for guitars ranges between 20 million and 30 million instruments. And as guitar cultural industrial parks emerge across the country, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce.
This presents a significant challenge for Zheng'an, which must find ways to maintain its competitive edge while navigating a saturated market.
Initially, local guitar makers and their companies engaged primarily in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) production, which, as Zheng put it, "lacks independent technologies and would prevent us from building advantages and competitiveness in sales."
It was not long before Zheng'an's guitar industry began making changes.
As traditional guitar manufacturing relies heavily on imported wood, including cedar and rosewood, local company Natasha invented an intelligent guitar made of bamboo, which provides a richer playing experience through innovative technologies such as embedded sound cards and chips.
Master guitar craftsman Zhang Weiyi has experimented with incorporating silver ornaments from the Miao ethnic group into his guitar designs. His handcrafted, customized guitars have attracted buyers from countries like the United States, Germany and Spain, with his most expensive creation selling for 380,000 yuan (about 53,000 U.S. dollars).
"What is national is international," Zhang said. "To me, guitars are not just musical instruments but cultural carriers."
To date, Zheng'an has secured 168 guitar-related patents and registered 77 independent guitar brands.
"It is essential to move beyond a development model solely reliant on guitar manufacturing," said Huang, the county chief. "Additionally, Zheng'an is integrating culture and tourism with its guitar industry."
The Zheng'an guitar cultural industrial park has developed a complete industrial chain, with its products being exported to over 40 countries and regions around the world.
Zheng'an has already trained over 100 guitar teachers and established guitar classes in all of its primary and secondary schools, providing instrument and singing lessons to nearly 60,000 people.
"Over the past 10-plus years, we have built an industry from scratch," Huang said. "Our next goal is to establish global standards for guitar production and ensure that more people will benefit."
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