Musical instrument crafts help poor county shake off poverty

Despite its remoteness and harsh natural conditions, Lankao in Central China's Henan Province is the latest county to be taken off China's list of impoverished counties.

With frequent sandstorms and flooding contributing to the area's poor soil, Lankao has had a long history of poverty.

Xuchang National Musical Instrument Village in Lankao County [Photo: China Plus]

Thanks to hard work by locals, the economy has been boosted by the upgrading of farming methods, but also the manufacture of high quality musical instruments.

Decades ago, local villagers started to plant Paulownia, a tree which grows in tough conditions, to help fight natural disasters. Those trees have grown into large scale woods, providing ideal raw materials for musical instrument manufacturing.

Taking advantage of the resource, many people have turned to the craft of making musical instruments. They sell their products across the country, bringing much needed money into their community.

The traditional Chinese musical instrument Pipa made in Lankao County [Photo: China Plus]

Xuchang Village of Lankao's Guyang Township is just one example. It has 54 musical instrument workshops with sales revenue reaching more than 60 million yuan.

Dong Wen is a senior official of Guyang Township.

"There are 105 houses in Xuchang village and over half of them are involved in musical instrument manufacturing. The business has already become our signature industry, and it's also a sunrise industry," Dong says.

In Xuchang Village, the sound of different musical instruments can be heard everywhere. The previously poor village has turned into a land of music.

A lot of musical instrument stores around the neighborhoods within the Xuchang Village [Photo: China Plus]

Xing Na is a local villager. She and her husband opened a traditional Chinese string instrument workshop several years ago. Now they have registered their own brand and sell nearly ten thousand musical instruments a year.

She says the average Guqin, a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument, can be sold for four or five thousand yuan each, while some good quality ones can reach up to around ten to twenty thousand, almost 3000 US dollars.

The Chinese zither made in Lankao County [Photo: China Plus]

Recently they entered the world of ecommerce.

"Our products can be found in many online retailers. Over half of our instruments are sold online. Now we have our own team. Many workers I hired are locals. They were very poor but now earn several thousand yuan a month. Some even make ten thousand yuan if they work extra hours," she says.

Xing Na with her traditional Chinese musical instrument products to be sold [Photo: China Plus]

Lankao has formed a mature value chain of musical instrument manufacturing and it has become the pillar of local economy. Almost 90 percent of musical instrument soundboards in the Chinese market are made in Lankao.

To date, the county as a whole, has 20 or so musical instrument brands. Guyang Township alone has 106 musical instrument factories, which create over ten thousand jobs.

Tang Erfa, president of the Lankao Traditional Chinese Musical Instrument Association, says the success is down to the local high-quality wood materials they use.

"Other places have Paulownia trees as well, but Lankao's Paulownia trees have their advantages. The unique climate and land type here grow trees that provide a perfect raw material for musical instruments," he notes.

One of the villagers is crafting a Chinese zither. [Photo: China Plus]

Thanks to Paulownia trees and musical instrument manufacturing, Lankao has successfully risen from poverty. 

A county can be removed from the list if less than 2 percent of its population is classified as "impoverished".

The Chinese government has vowed to eradicate poverty by 2020. As of late February, there were 831 impoverished county-level regions across China, which are expected to eliminate poverty in the next four years.

According to official figures, at the end of 2015, China still had 55.75 million people living in poverty. The government has said 10 million people were lifted out of poverty in 2016 and another 10 million will do so this year.