Parrot and Chinese Accordions

[xingfan1227]

Hi all,

So I haven't seen much information about the history of the Chinese-made accordions and would like to provide some information I know. Hope you will find it interesting.

I'm pretty new to the forum so a little bit about myself - I was born in the mid 80s and grew up in China. I started to take accordion lessons at the age of 4-5 and continued to take lessons all the way to middle school. So I was a pretty serious accordion student and passed the 8th level grade test by China's Central Conservatory of Muisic when I was 12, which was pretty decent at the time. Then not long after that, I came to the US.

That was just to say that I did study with the best accordion teachers in China at the time and knew the real situation then I see a ton of different brands of Chinese made accordions now, but back in the 1990s, almost all the top players play Parrot brand accordions, made in Tianjin, China. It was pretty much the one-and-only brand peopel chose. There were a couple of other brands, such as Baile and Jiang-Jie. But neither could compete with Parrot.

Around 1997, my dad bought me a 2nd hand full size Parrot accordion for about 3000 yuan, which if using exchange rate, would be only 400 USD, which doesn't seem much. However, 3000 yuan in China back then worth WAY MORE than 400 USD in the US at the time, because the price of things in China then was about 1/10 of the price in the US. My father had a decent middle-class job and his monthly salary was about 800 yuan after tax, so that used accordion would be 4 months of his total earnings! A new one, if I had to guess, was probably around 4000 yuan back then.

Also because the China's low price / low income combination, there was no way for people to afford an accordion from Europe, and thus that's also a reason that everyone played a Parrot. But Parrot accordions were indeed very decently made, because all professional players played it, and accordion was very popular in China back then. I recently took back mine from my parents' house and compared it against my Excelsior Continental AC. Of course overall the Parrot is a lower quality accordion, but there are actually some things that I like more on the Parrot. One is that it has much faster/lighter keyboard action (but of course that could just be that I grew up playing it so I'm too used to it). The treble sound is also very good and comparable to the Excelsior. The bass side, however, is several tiers below the Excelsior. The sound just isn't very full/solid. Still a great accordion though.

Sadly, after 1998, the Parrot company went through a series of changes, and the accordions produced after are no longer the best. There also were accordions that were not assembed by the Parrot comapny that had the Parrot labels.

One other interesting thing - on the bass side, my Parrot accordion has the marking on Eb, C, and E, where I believe all the Italy/US accordions have the marking on Ab, C, and E. (This really causes me troubles in playing the Excelsior!) I think having the Eb marked instead of Ab is a general thing in China - so if you are unsure if an accordion is Chinese-produced, this could be a give-away!

Thanks for reading and enjoy playing

 

[Zvon]

Thanks for this interesting post!

 

[PhiliGol]

Interesting story - thanks for sharing it.

 

[Notario]

Very nice from you to share history of China accordion with us. If you've got more information, would be glad to hear about it.
Like for example, how was it so popular in that time ? And was it more in the north than in the south ? (because of soviet influence maybe?)

It seems that the grandparent of my girlfriend played a little bit (Northern chinese, went to mongolia with 17 years old). But no one knows much about it

 

[debra]

Thanks for sharing this bit of history and experience. It kinda mirrors my own experience that people who bought a Parrot several decades ago were not too displeased with it, whereas now virtually all accordions coming out of China (or North Korea) that are made for export are mostly rubbish.
Your experience that the brand name printed on an accordion does not necessarily state in which factory most, if not all, of an accordion was made is exactly the same as the situation with European accordions. Sometimes there are clues. When you see older lower end Hohner accordions you can tell by the register switches whether it was made by Hohner in Germany or by a factory in the Czech republic (or perhaps Slovakia). Higher end Hohner accordions like the Morino have been made in Italy (first by Excelsior, later Pigini and others). And even with Italian brands you see accordions with different labels that are otherwise absolutely identical so who knows who made them... There are smaller outfits that will really make all the accordions carrying their label, but with the largest companies I wouldn't be so sure, especially with their lower end items.

 

[dunlustin]

Thank you so much for your insider's informed view.

 

[xingfan1227]

Very nice from you to share history of China accordion with us. If you've got more information, would be glad to hear about it.
Like for example, how was it so popular in that time ? And was it more in the north than in the south ? (because of soviet influence maybe?)

It seems that the grandparent of my girlfriend played a little bit (Northern chinese, went to mongolia with 17 years old). But no one knows much about it

I should clarify, in China back then, accordion wasn't "popular" in the sense that a large percentage of the population were playing/listening to it, but what I meant was just that it was more popular than any other instruments. Like when parents wanted their kids to learn a music instrument, many (probably half) chose accordion. The second popular instrument behind accordion was electric keyboard. When I was taking the annual grade level test, all the instruments were in the same campus, and there were a ton of accordion players and some keyboards, but we'd only see a couple of strings or wind instruments.

One reason for the popularity of accordion was that it's a "standalone" instrument. One can perform by himself, and anywhere anytime without others. This was the reason that strings/winds instruments were not as popular, because at the time most schools did not have bands/orchestra. The reason that accordion was more popular than piano was also simple - most people could not afford a piano, and accordion was much cheaper. Parents who wanted their kids to play piano pretty much all started off with electric keyboards, just to see if their kids had the potential or not.

 

[xingfan1227]

Thanks for sharing this bit of history and experience. It kinda mirrors my own experience that people who bought a Parrot several decades ago were not too displeased with it, whereas now virtually all accordions coming out of China (or North Korea) that are made for export are mostly rubbish.
Your experience that the brand name printed on an accordion does not necessarily state in which factory most, if not all, of an accordion was made is exactly the same as the situation with European accordions. Sometimes there are clues. When you see older lower end Hohner accordions you can tell by the register switches whether it was made by Hohner in Germany or by a factory in the Czech republic (or perhaps Slovakia). Higher end Hohner accordions like the Morino have been made in Italy (first by Excelsior, later Pigini and others). And even with Italian brands you see accordions with different labels that are otherwise absolutely identical so who knows who made them... There are smaller outfits that will really make all the accordions carrying their label, but with the largest companies I wouldn't be so sure, especially with their lower end items.

Yeah, from what I read in the Chinese sources, that was one of the reasons for the decline of the Parrot accordions. Some people had ways to secretly take the parts out of the factory, and they'd then assemble the accordions themselves and sell them for cheaper. The qualities then vary a lot and people began to lose faith and would no longer pay the higher priced Parrots over other Chinese brands. Quite a sad ending. There is still the Parrot brand today but it's really a different company and the quality is no comparison to the ones in the past.

 

[Ventura]

popularity i believe was also influenced, similarly with bicycles,
no batteries were needed..

the difference in culture and general mindset is something in the west
i believe we miss.. for example South Korea, for the longest time,
had more acoustic Piano's per capita/per family than any other
country in the world.. possibly still do..

such a deep investment by an entire people/nation requires
some very deep convictions and desires and willingness to sacrifice
other aspects of life, as compared to the West, where as soon as
some new bright and shiny thing gives competition in a price point
for the affection and time of the populace, suddenly we are seeing
free (and damn nice) Piano's being given away regularly on Craigslist..