In this town, highly strung is so much fun

Chen's granddaughter, Zhang Yuanyuan, a kindergartner then, joined the club.

"Because of the great cello education resources in Xianxiang, she stopped learning the piano to play the cello," Chen says.

Chen audited almost every cello class that Zhang took and gradually became her cello training partner.

In 2019, an adult cello club was established, and Liu Cheng, who plays the cello with the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, periodically taught the club members.

Chen joined the club as soon as he heard about it.

His motto is that well begun is half done, so he spent more than 20,000 yuan ($2,900) on his first cello.

"That was almost a year's pension, but it was well worth it," he says.

Since then, he has practiced the cello three to four hours a day. He says he enjoys what he does despite the hard work. "I'm a slow learner. That's why I need to practice more than others."