Li Jinhui
Encyclopedia
Li Jinhui was a composer and songwriter born in Xiangtan
, Hunan
, China
. He is the "Father of Chinese popular music
". He created a new musical form with shidaiqu
after the fall of the Qing Dynasty
-- moving away from established musical forms. Li was a very controversial figure in China. Although his music was extremely popular, the Chinese 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 Revolution
.
.
During his teenage years, he became fascinated with Chinese folk music
, 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.
working as the new National Assembly’s secretary from 1911 to 1914, 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 Changsha 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 Movement
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 Chinese 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 opera
and Huagu flower drums , which are performed over a stage theatre monologue. Because of this, it can be said that the very first inspirations 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 Hunan 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 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 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 Troupe
in 1929 and toured around the country. The tour began mostly as political squeeze due to the National Revolutionary Army
during the Northern Expedition. When he was situated at Singapore
, 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 shidaiqu
.
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 Jazz
influence came from American
Buck Clayton
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 Er
, and Zhou Xuan
. Zhou Xuan would later become one of the Seven great singing stars
of the Republic of China
.
In 1931, Li’s troupe merged with the China Film Company, also called the China Film Company
. 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 marketing
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 Studio
. 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 Music
by the Communist Party of China
, he became a victim of political persecution during the Cultural Revolution
.
and RCA-Victor
. He also discovered and catapulted into stardom some of Shanghai’s most famous recording artists and actress during the late 1920s to 1940s. In his lifetime, critics derided his work as "Yellow Music
" because of its sexual associations. His work was labeled pornographic
and was accepted only by select groups. His music movement would later grow into the cantopop
and mandopop
phenomenon, which became the main genre of music in Hong Kong
and Taiwan
respectively in the 20th century.
Xiangtan
Xiangtan is a city in China's Hunan Province that is located on the lower reaches of Xiang river. The hometowns of several founding leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, including Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Peng Dehuai are in the Xiangtan Municipal District, as well as the hometowns of Qing...
, Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
, China
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. He is the "Father of Chinese popular music
C-pop
C-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 created a new musical form with shidaiqu
Shidaiqu
Shidaiqu 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 Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
-- moving away from established musical forms. Li was a very controversial figure in China. Although his music was extremely popular, the Chinese 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 Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Early years
Born into a well-to-do family, Li Jinhui (黎锦晖） 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 instruments Li studied was the guqinGuqin
The guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...
.
During his teenage years, he became fascinated with Chinese folk music
Music of China
Chinese Music has been made since 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
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
working as the new National Assembly’s secretary from 1911 to 1914, 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 Changsha 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 Movement
New Culture Movement
The 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, Zhou Zuoren, and Hu Shi, had...
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 Chinese 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 opera
Chinese opera
Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
and Huagu flower drums , which are performed over a stage theatre monologue. Because of this, it can be said that the very first inspirations 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 Hunan 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 notation
Numbered musical notation
The numbered musical notation, better known as 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 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 Troupe
Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe
Bright 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 Army
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National 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...
during the Northern Expedition. When he was situated at Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, 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 shidaiqu
Shidaiqu
Shidaiqu 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 Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
influence came from American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Buck Clayton
Buck Clayton
Buck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s "Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented 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 Er
Nie Er
Nie 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"...
, and Zhou Xuan
Zhou Xuan
Zhou Xuan was a popular Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of China's 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 stars
Seven great singing stars
The 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 on the economy at the time. Several of the stars acted in films, and their music played a...
of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
.
In 1931, Li’s troupe merged with the China Film Company, also called the China Film Company
Lianhua Film Company
The 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 marketing
Mass marketing
Mass 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 Studio
Shanghai Animation Film Studio
Shanghai 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 Music
Yellow Music
Yellow 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 China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, he became a victim of political persecution during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
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
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
and RCA-Victor
RCA Records
RCA 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 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. He also discovered and catapulted into stardom some of Shanghai’s most famous recording artists and actress during the late 1920s to 1940s. In his lifetime, critics derided his work as "Yellow Music
Yellow Music
Yellow 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 pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and was accepted only by select groups. His music movement would later grow into the cantopop
Cantopop
Cantopop 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 mandopop
Mandopop
Mandopop is a colloquial abbreviation for "Mandarin popular music." 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 name implies, Mandopop features songs...
phenomenon, which became the main genre of music in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
respectively in the 20th century.