Nie Er, born in 1912 in Kunming, Yunnan province, is often referred to by Chinese people as “the people’s musician” (“Nie Er,” 2011). He showed musical talent from a young age and studied under Li Jinhui in the Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe in 1932. During his time in the troupe, he realized that learning classical European music was a dead end, and he needed to create revolutionary music (Jones, 2001). Nie Er went on to compose a new style of mass music inspired by Soviet mass song and Western military marches that impacted Chinese culture and aesthetics for decades, including “March of the Volunteers,” which became the national anthem of the People’s Republic of China. He was also an outspoken critic of Chinese popular songs such as those written by Li Jinhui and his colleagues; he published several critiques of Li’s music, calling it “decadent” and “politically passive” (Jones, 2001). This prompted his expulsion from the troupe. Nie Er went on to a very short career leading the leftist music movement in China before his death in 1935 from an accidental drowning on a Tokyo beach. Though his life was short, Nie Er was prolific and made a deep impact on Chinese music, including singing mass songs in Mandarin, marketing the music through mass media, and lashing out against Westernized or hybridized genres like Shanghai popular song (Jones, 2001).

“Nie Er- The People’s Musician - China.Org.Cn.” June 21, 2011. http://www.china.org.cn/china/CPC_90_anniversary/2011-06/21/content_22826853.htm.

Jones, Andrew F. Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.