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Shen Jian never learned how to play the instrument, but after almost 50 years spent building accordions, he’s one of the few remaining custodians of an almost forgotten musical tradition. By Zhou Zhijian and Wu Huiyuan Sitting in his modest, sawdust-choked workshop on the outskirts of Shanghai, 67-year-old Shen Jian wonders aloud whether he’s wasted his life. The craftsman and factory owner has spent more than four decades dedicated to a singular pursuit: the manufacturing and selling of accordions. A low-margin business in the best of times, Shen has weathered layoffs, the challenges of starting a business almost from scratch, the dissolution of his marriage after years of long hours with little to show for it, and most recently, the collapse of sales during the pandemic. Now, he sometimes wonders whether he made the right choices. “In reality I think my decision (to stay in the accordion industry) was probably a mistake,” Shen tells Sixth Tone. “But it’s the choice I m
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