Once barely worth the pittance they sold for, Chinese violins are today winning international awards and gracing major orchestras - a development that has European makers, especially those in Stradivari's home town of Cremona, glancing nervously over their shoulders.
'There's something about Chinese motor skills and coordination,' says Sachiko Mori, director of Cremona, a US-based violin dealer recently on the mainland to showcase its masterpieces. 'The average manual skills are much higher in China.'
Violins have been on the outskirts of Chinese culture for nearly a century. Mao Zedong championed the instrument as part of his 'two weapons' theory, claiming China needed both military and artistic strength.
Factories started making violins in the 1960s, but they remained virtually unplayable for decades. Zheng Quan, a master luthier (maker of stringed instruments), says that during his student days in Cremona two decades ago, his school would receive regular shipments of Chinese instruments.
'They used to throw out the violins and bows, and just keep the cases,' he says. 'They were silk.'
Their poor quality was hardly surprising - Chinese craftspeople were culturally, geographically and politically disadvantaged. 'You can't make what you can't see,' says David Morris, director of John & Arthur Beare, arguably the world's leading violin dealer. 'Artists can go to the Louvre and the Met and see great pictures. But because these violins are the tools of the trade, they aren't hung up in every museum. It's like a cartel, a closed shop.'