National Anthem Author Information

Nie Er (formerly known as Nie Shouxin, February 14, 1912 - July 17, 1935) was a Chinese musician, known by the character Ziyi (also known as Ziyi), and the composer of the national anthem of the People's Republic of China***, the March of the Volunteers.

Biography

Nie Er was a native of Yuxi, Yunnan, born in Kunming. Nie Er loved music from a young age, and in 1918, he attended the Kunming Normal Primary School. In 1918, Nie Er attended the Kunming Normal Primary School, where he learned to play the flute, erhu, sanxian, and yueqin, and began to conduct the school's "children's band". 1922, Nie Er entered the senior section of the private Qushi Elementary School, and was admitted to the First Joint High School of Yunnan Province in 1925.

In 1927, Nie Er graduated from the First United High School of Yunnan Province and entered the First Normal School of Yunnan Province. During his time at the school, he participated in the student organization "Reading Club", and organized the "JiuJiu Music Club" with his friends, often taking part in performances both inside and outside the school. During this time, he also taught himself to play the violin and piano.

In April 1931, Nie Er was admitted to the "Mingyue Song and Dance Theater" sponsored by Lai Kam Fai as a violinist, and in July 1932, Nie Er published "A Short Essay on Song and Dance in China" and was forced to leave the troupe because of criticizing Lai's work. In 1933, Nie Er joined the Chinese Communist Party.

In April 1934, Nie Er joined the Baiyue Records Company and presided over the music department, and at the same time established the Baiyue National Orchestra (also known as the "Sen Sen National Orchestra"). This was Nie Er's most prolific year, and in early 1935, Nie Er composed the famous "March of the Volunteers."

In January 1935, Nie Er was appointed as the director of the music department of the Lianhua No.2 Factory, and on July 17th, 1935, Nie Er, who was only 23 years old, drowned in Fujisawa City, Japan, while swimming.

■He was a gifted musician and a revolutionary. It was precisely because of the latter that the former brilliance emerged

"Writings are words of the world, poems are words of the will, and music is the voice of the heart." Nie Er himself, and even his monumental works, are the result of that particular era of national peril. Those powerful notes were also the voice of the people at that time. In 1932, ten days after the outbreak of the Shanghai Incident on February 7, when the sound of rumbling artillery could be heard outside, and refugees were displaced on the streets, Nie Er made his first statement in his diary, "How to be a revolutionary? In his diary, Nie Er proposed for the first time "how to make revolutionary music". Nie Er was a gifted musician and a revolutionary, and it was precisely because of the latter that the splendor of the former emerged. His series of works, especially the March of the Volunteer Army, is the product of the people's revolution led by the ****production party.

When the March of the Volunteers first sounded on the screen, it unfortunately coincided with Nie Er's death, but the song resounded across China as a rallying cry of the national revolution, and it also gained worldwide fame. During the anti-fascist war, the song was often played on radio stations in Britain, the United States, India and many other countries. On the eve of the end of the war, the U.S. Department of State also approved its inclusion in the Allied Victory Triumph Song. When the national anthem was solicited on the eve of the founding of New China, Zhou Enlai proposed the use of this song, which was unanimously approved at the new CPPCC. At the 1949 National Ceremony and on National Day every year thereafter, the music composed by Nie Er was played majestically, which was enough to console the souls of those who died in foreign countries.

■Only two years into his musical career, Nie Er produced many songs that have had an impact for decades

■When he was too poor to buy a cotton shirt in Peking, he went to Tianqiao and other places in the late fall, using his limited money to collect northern folk music materials and listen to the roar of people who were selling their voices and kung fu; it was only after a year's hard work and saving up in Shanghai that he was able to buy the inexpensive violin of his dreams

Nie Er's musical career has been marked by a series of dramatic music performances, including the opening ceremony of the People's Republic of China and every National Day since then, which are enough to comfort the souls of those who died in foreign countries. >Nie Er's music career, although only two years from 1933 to 1935, but created "Road Song", "Dockworkers Song", "Pioneer", "New Women", "Graduation Song", "Newspaper Selling Song", "Under the Iron Heel of the Songstress" and other decades of songs have been very popular. These brilliant achievements were made possible not only by his personal genius, but most of all by his penetration into the lowest level of social life. He concluded in his diary on June 3, 1933, "Music, like other arts, poetry, fiction and drama, cries out in the place of the masses, who inevitably demand new contents and performances of music and new attitudes on the part of composers."

Nie Er, who grew up in poverty, had a deep affection for the toiling masses and despised those who drilled in the "ivory tower" of self-appreciation and the "white snow" that served the few. He was so poor that he could not afford to buy cotton clothes in Peking, but in the late fall, he went into the slum area, such as Tianqiao, and used his limited money to collect folk music materials in the north, and listened to the roar of the sellers of their voices and kung fu in an environment "full of the sweaty stench of the workers, car drivers, and hooligans of the proletariat," and learned about their "struggle for life" and "the struggles of life. The struggle for life". In Shanghai, Nie Er often walked on the frosty morning and night roads to experience the hard work of female laborers, which led to the creation of "New Women". Nie Er also made friends with newspaper boys and asked them for help every day, and it was in this environment that the famous "Newspaper Selling Song" was recited.

Nie Er did not have decent creative conditions, and it was only after a year of hard work and saving that he bought a cheap violin he had dreamed of for years. The room he lived in was cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and he was paid only 6 yuan for four consecutive days of performances in Beijing. This not only made him hate the exploitation of the capitalist bosses even more, but also made his works constantly call out the people's demand for liberation.

Tian Han wrote "March of the Volunteers" on a cigarette wrapper in a hurry, and Nie Er finalized the first draft of the piece at home, but it was finally composed in enemy territory

In the mid-1930s, when the Japanese invaded the Northeast and then extended their iron-hooves to North China, the reactionary and decadent forces in the country were still indulging in paper drunkenness and gold. The society was filled with "Peach Blossom River", "Hairy Rain" and "I Love You, Sister", a kind of depraved and demoralizing obscene songs. ***Tian Han, a writer who was a member of the Communist Party, approached Nie Er, believing that people would become slaves of the country if they continued to sing such obscene songs. The two agreed to compose a song to overcome the "Peach Blossom River is a Beauty's Nest". In early 1935, Tian Han adapted the movie "Children of the Wind and Cloud" and wrote a theme song, "March of the Volunteers". He was arrested and sent to prison when he realized that KMT agents had come after him, and he hastily wrote the lyrics on a tiny cigarette wrapper.

Xia Yan got the script left by Tian Han and found the cigarette liner with the lyrics inside. Soon afterward, Nie Er came to Xia Yan, and when he heard about this, he volunteered, "Leave the composing to me, I'll do it!" Nie Er composed the first draft of the song in only two days according to the idea he had put forward together with Tian Han, and then went to Japan to avoid arrest. There, on the one hand, he was warmly received by friendly people, but on the other hand, he also saw the militarists clamoring for "expanding interests in China" and sharpening their swords. Nie Er was inspired to write the song, and quickly sent it back to China with an even more powerful melody.

Major works

Nie Er composed 37 pieces of music in his lifetime***, all less than two years before his death, with a large proportion of songs reflecting the life and struggles of the working class. Nie Er often collaborated with Tian Han. In addition to the March of the Volunteer Army, Nie Er's representative works include Graduation Song, Forward Song, Great Road Song, Pioneer of the Road, Dockworkers' Song, New Woman, Flying Flower Song, Village Girl of the Seaside, Singing Girl Under the Iron Hoof, Farewell to the South Seas, Plum Maiden Song, Song of the Newspaper Sellers, Opera Tempest of the Yangtse River, and the national instrumental pieces Cuihu Lake Spring Dawn and Dancing Wildly of the Golden Serpent, and so on.

Epitaph for Nie Er

In 1954, the People's Government of the People's Republic of China***Yunnan Province decided to rebuild Nie Er's cemetery, and asked Guo Moruo to inscribe the tombstone and epitaph.

Comrade Nie Er, the horn of the Chinese Revolution, the drum of the people's liberation, was also the sound of the drum. Its score "March of the Volunteer Army", has been selected as a substitute for the national anthem, heard its voice, no one is not yet emerging patriotic thoughts, solemn and macro-ambition of the gas, and resolutely with the interest of the same swan in the ****. Nie Er hu, towering, its and the country and life, and immortal call! Comrade Nie Er, China **** production party members, also, February 14, 1912 was born in the bright and beautiful Kunming, July 17, 1935 drowned in Japan swan swamp of the waterfront, at the age of only twenty-four. Unfortunately, he died in an enemy country, which is a great pity. The reason why he drowned, so far has not been able to understand!

Today's Nie Er Cemetery was relocated and newly built in the early 1980s. The epitaph engraved on the wall of the left screen of the cemetery, written by Guo Moruo, has also been deleted, "Unfortunately, he died in an enemy country, which is a great pity. The reason why he was drowned is still not clear to this day! words. The reason for this is that the company's website is a very important part of the company's business.

In 1935, when Nie Er drowned, Japan was gradually implementing its plan to invade China. After the news of Nie Er's death spread back to China, many patriots and cultural figures, who y deplored the loss of such a musical genius, wrote articles in dozens of newspapers and magazines such as Morning Post, Dentsu, China Daily, New Music Monthly and Ta Kung Pao, etc., to commemorate, and to *** with the remembrance of this vanguard fighter, who blew the alarming trumpet in the time of the Chinese nation's greatest danger. Guo Moruo also wrote a poem in memory of Nie Er.

In February 1954, when Guo Moruo wrote the inscription and epitaph for Nie Er, China and Japan had no diplomatic exchanges, and each other was still regarded as an "enemy country". Therefore, Guo Moruo wrote in his epitaph, "Unfortunately, he died in an enemy country, which is a great pity. The reason why the drowning, so far has not been able to understand it!

These are the words of the man who was born in the United States.

Nine months after Guo Moruo wrote the epitaph, the Japanese built a monument to Nie Er near the site where Nie Er was killed on the coast of Sakunuma, Fujisawa City. 1963, with the trade between China and Japan, the Japanese people rebuilt a granite monument in the shape of an ear, and a Japanese dramatist, Mr. Akita Yutaka, wrote an introduction to Nie Er's life. The Japanese dramatist Mr. Akita Yutaka wrote a monument introducing Nie Er's life and asked Guo Moruo to inscribe the monument. Guo Moruo inscribed the monument with the words "Nie Er's final resting place".

In 1972, China and Japan established diplomatic relations, and in May 1980, officials from Fujisawa City in Japan, where Nie Er was martyred, hand-planted Yunnan's famous azalea and Fujisawa City's tree, the Fujisawa City Tree, at Nie Er's gravesite in Kunming City, to express their nostalgia for Nie Er, and their hope that the two cities would take Nie Er as a link to establish a friendship city. Responding to the Japanese enthusiasm, the governments of China*** Yunnan Province and Kunming City decided to relocate and rebuild Nie Er's grave. The tombstone still uses the inscription by Guo Moruo. In early 1982, the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Culture took the idea and submitted it to the Ministry of Culture for approval. Eventually approved, the epitaph continued to be used, but before the tombstone was re-engraved, the last two sentences were wiped out with cement, and the color was to be as consistent as possible with the original stone tablet.

According to the instructions of the Ministry of Culture, the People's Government of Kunming City re-engraved Guo Moruo's epitaph on the left screen wall of the cemetery and deleted the last two sentences.

Tian Han (March 12, 1898-December 10, 1968), known as Shouchang, used to be known by his pen names Bo Hong, Chen Yu, Shuren and Han Xian. He was a playwright, opera writer, movie script writer, novelist, poet, lyrics writer, literary critic, social activist, and leader of literary work. The founder of modern Chinese theater. He was born in Changsha, Hunan Province.

Biography

Multi-talented and a prolific writer. He studied in Japan in his early years and began his theater activities in the 1920s. He wrote many famous plays and successfully adapted some traditional operas, and joined the Chinese ****anist Party in 1930.

After 1949 Tian Han served as director of the Bureau of Opera Improvement and the Bureau of Arts of the Ministry of Culture. He was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution, and was vindicated in April 1979, with a solemn memorial service held in Beijing.

Achievements

Tian Han was engaged in literature and art all his life, writing more than 60 plays and operas, 20 movie scripts, 24 opera scripts, and nearly 2,000 lyrics and poems in old and new styles. Among them, "March of the Volunteer Army" was composed by Nie Er and was designated as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. Drama masterpieces include The Night of the Acquired Tiger, The Death of Famous You, The Messy Bell, The Song of Returning to Spring, Lillian's Journey, and Guan Hanqing? %A