Li Jinhui (September 5, 1891 - February 15, 1967) was a composer and songwriter born in
XiangtanXiangtan is a city in Hunan province and located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. It is the hometown of many notable people including Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Peng Dehuai, Qi Baishi and Zeng Guofan.-History:...
,
Hunan' is a province of China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. He is the "Father of
Chinese popular musicC-pop is an abbreviation for Chinese popular music , a loosely defined musical genre by artists originating from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Others come from countries where the Chinese language is used by a large number of the population, such as Singapore and Malaysia...
". He is most notable for creating a new musical form with
shidaiquShidaiqu is a type of Chinese folk/European jazz fusion music that originated in Shanghai, China, in the 1920s.-Terminology:The term literally means "songs of the era" in Mandarin...
after the fall of the
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
-- moving away from established musical forms. Li was an extremely controversial figure in China. Though his music was extremely popular, many said that his music was corrupting to the Chinese people. The Nationalist Party attempted to ban his music, and Li was eventually silenced in death as a victim of political persecution in 1967 during the height of the
Cultural RevolutionThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People’s Republic of China between 1966 and 1976, resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray.It was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, on May 16,...
.
Early years
Born into a well-respected, well-to-do family, Li Jinhui grew up studying the Confucian classics and attending progressive schools like Shaoshan and Xiangtan. In total he had 8 brothers, including Li Jinxi, who became “a prominent linguist and educator”.One of the earliest instrument Li studied was the
guqinThe guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...
plucked string instrumentPlucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such as way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate...
s during his childhood.
During Li Jinhui’s teenage years, he became fascinated with
Chinese folk musicThe music of China dates back to the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
, which he later incorporated into his revolutionary new musical style. Even as a high school student at Changsha Normal High School, Li’s musical aptitude was apparent; the teen served as a musician, choir director, and part-time music instructor before he graduated in 1911.
Career
After a brief stint in
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
working as the new National Assembly’s secretary from 1911 to 1914, the newly-graduated Li returned to his native Hunan to direct other student choirs. Li‘s burgeoning career began in a dramatic way. He wrote several satirical political songs for a
ChangshaChangsha is the capital city of Hunan, a province of south-central China, located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. It covers an area of 11,819 sq. kilometers and has a population of 6,017,600 ....
newspaper, but one such song so angered a local warlord that Li received a beating for it.
Li decided in 1916 to move back to Beijing, where he became involved in the
New Culture MovementThe New Culture Movement of the mid 1910s and 1920s sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic founded in 1912 to address China’s problems. Scholars like Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, and Hu Shi, had classical...
centered at Beijing University. He participated in the May 4th Movement of 1919. In Beijing, Li also delved deeper into his life-long pursuit of his two passions: the pedagogy of language and folk music. A Mandarin and music teacher, Li spent his time writing textbooks about effective classroom language instruction and exploring many musical genres. He was inspired by local
Chinese operaChinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE. There are numerous regional branches of Chinese opera, of which the Beijing opera is one of the most notable.-Dynastic periods:Canjun opera of the Three Kingdoms period was...
and Huagu flower drums which are performed over a stage theatre monologue. Because of this, it can be said that the very first inspiration of Chinese popular music are derived from these forms.
As the head of the division of Beijing University’s Institute for the Promotion and Practice of Music focused on Hunanese music, Li began adapting, transcribing and performing regional Chinese folk songs to celebrate and reach the common people of China. However, Li’s efforts were shunned by his colleagues because he failed to focus on the European Romantic music which was in vogue at the time or on traditional musical forms like
kungqu opera. Instead Li focused on the folk songs, which were considered to be “vulgar” and common.
In 1920, Li organized the Bright Moon ensemble, the name of which Li derived from the New Culture Movement’s rhetoric; Li described the focus of his musical endeavors, declaring, “we raise a banner of a ‘music for the common people,’ like the bright moon in the sky, shining across the land for all the people to enjoy”. In that same year, Li also became the editor of the
Common People’s Weekly Magazine, and the next year became an editor at the China Book Bureau, and the following year was promoted to be the principal of the National Language Institute in Shanghai.
Also in 1922, Li began editing the children's magazine
Little Friend, which soon became the nation’s best selling periodical. In
Little Friend, Li promoted anti-feudalist attitudes, national use of Mandarin Chinese, family values, sharing, harmony with nature, and good citizenship through nursery rhymes and children's operas. The songs were stripped down to just the melody, written in
simplified notationThe numbered musical notation, better known as jianpu in Chinese, is a musical notation system widely used among the Chinese people. Some people call it the numeric notation or numerical notation, but it is not to be confused with the integer notation...
, and they fused Chinese instrumentation with guitars, violins and pianos.
Though Li’s early work is completely innocent and educational in content, it still met with disapprobation from some critics despite its immense popularity. This resistance may be due to the manner in which these songs were performed. Beginning in 1923, Li’s broke the taboo of not allowing women to perform on stage when he hired young girls to sing and dance in his school musical productions, including the
The Sparrow and the Child and
The Little Painter.. Even more controversial was his decision to allow his own daughter, Li Minghui, to perform.Minghui grew to become an extremely popular singer, actress and child film star, but she was also brutally criticized for her public performances due to the traditional distrust of entertainers as “tawdry and shameful” . In 1927 he organized the "Chinese Dance School" and then the "Chinese Song and Dance Troupe" .
Although Li was forced to disband the Bright Moonlight group due to pressure from the Kuomintang (KMT) and financial troubles, he established the Beauty School for Girls in 1928 so that he could continue to work with a group of his pupils. After a financially unsuccessful tour with his girls, Li released a wildly popular album called
Family Love Songs and later released
Patriotic Songs in 1932. Armed with the success of his first album, Li reconstituted the former
Bright Moonlight Song and Dance TroupeBright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe was a group founded by Li Jinhui from late 1920s to 1930s. It is also referred to as "Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe".-Background:...
in 1929 and toured around the country. The tour began mostly as political squeeze due to the
National Revolutionary ArmyThe National Revolutionary Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928...
during the Northern Expedition. When he was situated at
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
, that was when his "period song" compositions began. The style would have some western influence and it moved Chinese music to a new direction. Those period songs would then be labeled as
shidaiquShidaiqu is a type of Chinese folk/European jazz fusion music that originated in Shanghai, China, in the 1920s.-Terminology:The term literally means "songs of the era" in Mandarin...
.
As radio became more widely accessible, so then did Li’s jazz, for which he received vicious criticism as “Yellow (or pornographic) Music.” One 1934 reviewer said of Li that he is “vulgar and depraved beyond the hope of redemption…[but] as popular as ever” . His greatest source of
JazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
influence came from
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Buck ClaytonBuck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player, fondly remembered for being a leading member of Count Basie’s 'Old Testament' orchestra and leader of mainstream orientated jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong...
who worked with Li for two years. Clayton played a major role in shaping the musical scores written by Li. Li’s revolutionary Sinese jazz music dominated the nightlife scene, and it was performed at cabarets, cafes and nightclubs around southeast Asia. Li himself led the first all-Chinese jazz band, which played at an upscale Shanghai nightclub. Li’s songs were often performed by different “song-and-dance troupes” composed of female singers and male musicians, many of whom had formerly been members of Li’s groups.Among the stars who came to prominence due to Li’s efforts were Wang Renmei,
Nie ErNie Er , was a Chinese composer. He is known for composing the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, the March of the Volunteers. In numerous Shanghai magazines he went by the English name "George Njal".-Early life:Nie Er's ancestors were from Yuxi, Yunnan, in southwest China...
, and
Zhou XuanZhou Xuan was a popular Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of the Seven great singing stars. She is probably the most well-known of the seven, as she had a concurrent movie career until 1953.-Biography:...
. Zhou Xuan would later become one of the
Seven great singing starsThe Seven Great Singing Stars refers to the seven most renowned singers of China in the early 20th century.-Background:Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese in the 1930s. World War II also had an effect in the economy at the time. Several of the stars acted in films, and their music played a...
of the
Republic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, is a state in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition and jurisdiction over China into a democratic state with limited international recognition and jurisdiction only over Taiwan and minor islands, though it...
.
In 1931, Li’s troupe merged with the China Film Company, also called the
China Film CompanyThe Lianhua Film Company was one of two major production companies based in Shanghai, China during the 1930s, the other being the Mingxing Film Company.-Names:...
. Li began writing music for films like
Romance at the Dancehall, “one of China’s first musical talkies” . Li’s music began to be associated with the urban
mass marketingMass Marketing is a market coverage strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and go after the whole market with one offer. It is type of marketing of a product to a wide audience. The idea is to broadcast a message that will reach the largest number of people possible...
of the female image, and an obsession with stardom and commercialism. By 1934, the musical and star-driven movement he began progressed without him.In 1949 he was a composer for the
Shanghai Animation Film StudioShanghai Animation Film Studio is the animation division of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation in Shanghai, China. It is responsible for the production of Chinese animations.-History:...
. Li continued to compose music the rest of his life, though he would eventually pay dearly for his fame. Classified as a founder of
Yellow MusicYellow Music or was a label used to describe early generations of Chinese popular music in Shanghai, China during the 1920s to 1940s as a reference to pornography....
by the
Communist Party of ChinaThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party...
, he became a victim of political persecution during the
Cultural RevolutionThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People’s Republic of China between 1966 and 1976, resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray.It was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, on May 16,...
.
Legacy
Though a controversial figure in his time, Li Jinhui contributed hundreds of songs to the musical community released by many major recording companies, including Great China,
Pathe-EMIPathé Records was a France based international record label active from the 1890s through the 1930s.Pathé was founded by brothers Charles & Émile Pathé, who were owners of a successful bistro in Paris. About 1890 they saw an Edison phonograph demonstrated at a fair and, captivated by the device,...
and
RCA-VictorRCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986.-The RCA family of labels:RCA is the name of three different co-owned record...
. He also discovered and catapulted into stardom some of Shanghai’s most famous recording artists and actress during the late 1920’s to 1940’s. In his life time, critics derided his work as "
Yellow MusicYellow Music or was a label used to describe early generations of Chinese popular music in Shanghai, China during the 1920s to 1940s as a reference to pornography....
" because of its sexual associations. His work was labeled
pornographicPornography or porn is the depiction of explicit sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual excitement.Over the past few decades, an immense industry for the production and consumption of pornography has grown, with the increasing use of the VCR, the DVD, and the Internet, as well as the...
and was accepted only by select groups. His music movement would later grow into the
cantopopCantopop is a colloquialism for "Cantonese popular music". It is sometimes referred to as HK-pop, short for "Hong Kong popular music". It is categorized as a subgenre of Chinese popular music within C-pop...
and
mandopopMandopop is a colloquial abbreviation for "Mandarin popular music". It is also referred to as Mandapop. It is categorized as a subgenre of commercial Chinese-language music within C-pop. Mandopop was the first variety of popular music in Chinese to establish itself as a viable industry. As the...
phenomenon, which became the main genre of music in
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
and
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
respectively in the 20th century.
External links