The keys to popularity

Just one single piece of video showing Taiwan candidate Chang Kai-min playing in the first round has garnered over 150,000 views on video platform Bilibili as of Thursday.

Also worth mentioning is that several Japanese participants have been active on Chinese social media platforms.

Hayato Sumino, under the name of Cateen, has over 100,000 fans on Bilibili, and videos of Tomoharu Ushida, in his childhood, performing onstage, being interviewed and attending a master class hosted by Chinese pianist Lang Lang, are widely watched.

Chinese audiences have also shown their appreciation of Sumino, from the graduate school of information sciences and technology at the University of Tokyo, and Sohgo Sawada, studying medical science at Nagoya University, for what they have accomplished in the music field.