In an out-of-the-way room in the grounds of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, I came across a memorial: photographs, papers and objects in memory of the 20 people – professors, spouses and students – who lost their lives during the 10-year Chinese Cultural Revolution. This catastrophe officially ended in 1976, the year of Mao Zedong’s death. When, a short time later, violinist Isaac Stern arrived for a series of high-profile concerts, he found that Shanghai – home for nearly a century to one of the first orchestras in Asia – could not find him one playable piano. The instruments, including an estimated 500 owned by the Shanghai Conservatory, had been destroyed. Read more
