It's tough climbing the ladder of success, especially when you're only 10. Just ask Hong Kong-born piano wunderkind Chloe Pak Man-chin. She enjoys performing in glittering venues, she says. But getting there has involved a rigorous - and often unwelcome - practice regimen under which she has at times rebelled against her parents' lofty expectations.
Chloe looks like any other primary school girl. She reads Geronimo Stilton comic books and plays electronic games. But she will do something this summer that no other Hong Kong child will - perform at the Shanghai World Expo.
On August 3, Chloe will perform the grand Emperor Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven with more than 100 players from Japan's Gumma Youth Symphony and Nanjing Philharmonic orchestras.
'I wish I could play all three movements - the third being my favourite - but I will be playing only the first,' the softly spoken girl says.
Born into a musical family, Chloe had a good ear even while she was in the womb, her mother says.
'She reacted directly to the music during my performance on stage,' says Hsin Hsiao-hung, principal erhu of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, recalling her pregnancy. 'Once there was a loud note on the bass drum. Boy, she kicked hard.'
