WHEN one talks about Huaqiangbei, the first thing that pops up to many is that it’s a world-famous one-stop wholesale market for electronic components, and it’s a place where countless entrepreneurs pursue their dreams and aspire to earn their first pot of gold. But, Huaqiangbei has more to offer.

The eight free pianos placed along Huaqiangbei pedestrian street have also become a haven for many to seek solace and a refuge for their souls, including migrant workers, frustrated artists and vagrants, according to Chinese magazine New Weekly.

This spring, a small memorial service was held in a corner in Huaqiangbei. A dozen people surrounded a vacant lot with beer and candles, singings songs in the cold wind in memory of their friend Lu Xuefeng who passed away of cerebral hemorrhage.

Not far away from the memorial service stood eight pianos that they often play together, and Lu had spent so many nights playing the piano there as well. Lu passed away at 59. She looked young and elegant and was used to wearing colorful floral skirts and high heels to play the piano. Her bright big earrings would flash while her fingers swept the piano keys.

Lu showed up in Huaqiangbei almost every night. At first, she just wanted to play the piano to the migrant workers who left work late at night. Slowly, a small crowd came together – as soon as she played, everyone gathered around her to sing, just like in a festival.

Lu would often bring her wheelchair-bound parents to Huaqiangbei to listen to the street concerts together. According to Lu’s daughter, identified as Xiaoyang, she was puzzled about her mother’s insistence on playing the piano in Huaqiangbei, as it looked like busking.

“Since my mother got to know them (piano friends), her birthdays would last for more than a week every year. Her piano friends celebrated her birthday in batches,” Xiaoyang said.

Lu was not the only one who liked to play the piano in Huaqiangbei. A 61-year-old vagrant called Lao Su loves to play the piano as he has a passion for art. Chen Yunchang, 72, is one of the oldest frequent visitors. Since he learned that there was pianos in Huaqiangbei three years ago, he would ride the Metro for over an hour there almost every night, rain or shine, to play the piano.

The street pianos were originally inspired by British artist Luke Jerram. Since 2008, Luke and his team have placed over 2,000 pianos on the streets in more than 70 cities around the world and given them a romantic declaration: “Play me, I’m yours.”

Sun Yonghong is the operation director of Huaqiangbei’s public-benefit pianos. When she received this task in 2018, she was managing the piano museum in Shenzhen musical instrument city. The Huaqiangbei Subdistrict Office hoped that she could collect some old piano graffiti for display by referring to foreign ideas. Unexpectedly, the pianos attracted many migrant workers to play.

Sun attends to problems stemming from managing the pianos almost every day but she still loves Huaqiangbei. The pianos in Huaqiangbei definitely add warmth to people’s hearts and souls.  (Zhang Yu)