Nie Er

Nie Er (14 February 1912 – 17 July 1935), born Nie Shouxin, courtesy name Ziyi (子義 or 子藝), was a Chinese composer best known for March of the Volunteers, the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. In numerous Shanghai magazines he went by the English name George Njal.

Biography

Early life

Nie Er's ancestors were from Yuxi, Yunnan, in southwest China. He was born in Kunming, Yunnan. From an early age Nie Er displayed an interest in music. From 1918 he studied at the Kunming Normal School's Associated Primary School. In his spare time, he learnt to play traditional instruments such as the dizi, erhu, sanxian, and yueqin, and became the conductor of the school's Children's Orchestra. In 1922 he entered the Private Qiushi Primary School (Senior Section), and in 1925 entered Yunnan Provincial Number One Combined Middle School.

In 1927 Nie Er graduated from Yunnan Provincial Number One Combined Middle School, and entered Yunnan Provincial Number One Normal School. At school, he participated in the Book Club, and organised the "Nine-Nine Music Society", which performed within the school and outside. During this time, he learnt to play the violin and the piano.

Nie Er (film)

Nie Er, formerly romanized as Nieh Erh, is a 1959 biopic of the Chinese musician Nie Er, a Communist Party member who drowned in Japan during his flight to Russia away from Nationalist oppression. The story centers on his composition of "The March of the Volunteers", the theme song to the 1935 drama Children of Troubled Times which was later adopted as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. The movie was released to coïncide with the 10th anniversary of the PRC's founding.

See also

References