From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China

10/17/2025

I’ll admit to being a bit confused as to the purpose of this documentary. It follows a select tour by Ukrainian-born American violinist Isaac Stern to communist China where he meets some of their prodigiously talented young folk who are adept at just about everything from playing musical instruments to table tennis to gymnastics. The one thing he seems to want to identify and correct is a certain rigidity with their playing styles, but that often leads to what appears to present a rather condescending approach to their skills. Hence my confusion. Is he there to impart his “Western” techniques on the Chinese or to see how they have embraced and adapted European classical music to their own style of music? We visit some Chinese opera and again, there is a degree of patronising going on which