China’s First Orchestra

[Randy W]

In the mid-19th century, a French Jesuit formed modern China’s first Western orchestra. A recent book and museum exhibit tell his story.
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The Forgotten Story of China’s First Orchestra
In the mid-19th century, a French Jesuit formed modern China’s first Western orchestra. A recent book and museum exhibit tell his story.

A group photo of The Tou-Se-We band. Francisco Diniz can be seen sitting in the second row, fourth from left. Courtesy of the author

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At first glance, the photo seems ordinary: 21 Chinese boys ranging from children to young adults stand in a big group, all of them dressed in jackets typical of the late Qing dynasty (1644-1912) period. Then you notice the items in their hands: Western musical instruments like triangles, horns, and oboes. Finally, you spot the man at the center of the crowd. His face obscured by the instruments, he could pass for one of the boys but for his beard and European features.

The man was French Jesuit missionary François Ravary; the boys were members of the orchestra he founded at Collège St. Ignace, in Shanghai’s Xujiahui neighborhood. And the photograph, taken in the late 1850s, was forgotten for over a century until it was unearthed and highlighted in David Francis Urrows’ 2021 book on Ravary: “François Ravary SJ and a Sino-European Musical Culture in Nineteenth-Century Shanghai.” Now, it’s rewriting the history of Western music in China.