With the approaching summer holiday, music-training centers are preparing for peak season as students pick up instruments in order to help round out their applications to foreign universities.

A Chinese lady teaches an African student to play guzheng, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, in an art school in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, on July 6, 2010.

Zhou Zhan, head of the Beijing-based Guzheng Training Center told the Global Times that among his 50 students, about 10 percent are between 18 and 22 studying an instrument in preparation to apply to universities abroad.

"Many are totally new to playing musical instruments," he said. "But learning a guzheng (a large, plucked Chinese zither) is relatively easy. Two or three months are enough to play a few simple songs."

Zhang Jiahe, a freshman at Columbia University, has studied guzheng for three years. Although not sure whether her skills directly helped with her admission, Zhang said that the university values students' understanding of art.

As one of few students who could play Chinese musical instruments at her university, Zhang was asked along with three others to take part in a six-week-long culture exchange activity at the Kunitachi College of Music in Japan last month.

Sheng Yang, owner of a musical instrument store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, said that many parents made clear their intentions when they send their children for lessons - "My daughter is going to university overseas. I'm bringing her to learn a traditional Chinese musical instrument."

"Parents think that playing piano or violin for a Westerner is like an amateur playing before an expert, but playing a traditional Chinese instrument will introduce foreigners to Chinese culture," said Sheng.

However, some experts have a different view on simply picking up a traditional instrument to bring Chinese culture to a foreign country.

Chen Hangming, vice secretary-general at Zhejiang Traditional Instruments Institute, said that one can only learn an instrument superficially by attending such crash courses.

"Once you play in a group, your lack of training is exposed, perhaps leaving the impression that Chinese music is nothing special," he said. "It's good to promote Chinese culture, but one should have a strong foundation first."

(Global Times July 9, 2010)