The strings that tie 70 years of Zhang Naili's family history together are stretched across a century-old violin.

Zhang, a 64-year-old local retiree, is very proud of the violin, which he saved during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) after it was brought to the country by an American nun.

"It is really very difficult to preserve the violin for so many years," said Zhang. "The violin came from America and survived the Cultural Revolution in our country."

Zhang said the violin was first brought to the country by an American nun who moved to China 1935.

At that time, Zhang's father was the president of St John's University, which is now known as East China University of Politics and Law, and had a lot of chance to meet foreigners.

When the nun learned that Zhang's father was interested in the violin, she started to teach him to play the instrument.

"After I was born in 1944, I was also asked to learn the violin," Zhang recalled. When the nun decided to return to the United States in 1949, she gave the German-made violin to Zhang's father as a gift, Zhang told Shanghai Daily.

While the wood has bleached with age, the instrument still works beautifully. "The timbre is really very good after so many years," Zhang said.

During the Cultural Revolution, Zhang was afraid the violin would be confiscated, so he kept it hidden in the countryside for years.

In 1979, a famous violinist offered 100,000 yuan (US$12,048) to buy the violin. At that time, anyone who had 10,000 yuan was regarded as man of wealth, let alone 100,000 yuan, said Zhang.

But Zhang and his father didn't sell the violin.

(Shanghai Daily March 15, 2005)