[Photo by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Zhang says that it is common for elderly people to forget what the teacher taught during the class the moment they arrive home. As such, they need to take extra measures to ensure they don't fall behind.

"As soon as I get home, I would practice repeatedly what the teacher taught so that I don't forget. Such perseverance also comes from the happiness and sense of achievement of mastering new skills and not setting limits for ourselves. It is very satisfying when we can interpret a piece very smoothly or play a song without stopping," she says.

Piano educators from around the world have said that learning the piano is an activity that only becomes common when a society has achieved a certain level of prosperity. Some experts have also pointed out that China's strong presence in the piano manufacturing industry in recent years has also provided its citizens with more opportunities to purchase higher quality pianos.

"Over the past decade, a lot of good piano makers have come into being in China and this has made pianos more affordable, in turn allowing many people to own one at home and enjoy playing music by themselves," says Maxim Mogilevsky, a pianist from Russia.

"Earlier this year, the International Tchaikovsky Competition used a Chinese brand of piano for the first time. Many participants said they loved the sound and wanted to buy the Yangtze River pianos. Meanwhile, the number of imported pianos for China is rising dramatically," he adds.

Ma Runqiu, 62, first learned the piano in her 30s when she sent her son for piano lessons. She says that she even made the effort to observe her son during lessons and book separate sessions for herself.

However, due to work commitments, Ma had to stop learning the piano after a year. Her son also stopped playing the piano after learning it for two years.

"But whenever I saw the piano at home, I felt like it was constantly reminding me to start learning again," she says.

Ma only did so after retiring seven years ago. In mid-August, she won a seat in the national final for the senior group at the 12th Shanghai International Youth Piano Competition-a special section dedicated to elderly piano players-where she went on to win second prize.

She confesses that she didn't take the piano seriously before because she believed that it was only meant for children and young people.

"I only changed my mind when I had an opportunity to perform onstage for our community. This made me believe that we should treat it seriously as piano playing is so elegant," she says.

Zhu Yafen, a renowned piano educator and the former dean of the piano department at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, says some of the elderly piano learners at the school were people who took piano lessons when they were young but stopped because of work commitments.

"A true love of music is like a true friendship-it will withstand the test of time," she says.