Nie Er

Also known as Born Nie Shouxin · Courtesy name Ziyi

Nie Er, born Nie Shouxin with the courtesy name Ziyi, came from a Yuxi family and was born in Kunming, Yunnan, in 1912. In 1931 he went to Shanghai and joined the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe as a violinist, later working for the Lianhua film company. In 1934 he ran the music department of the Pathé record company and formed its Chinese instrumental ensemble, arranging folk tunes into ensemble pieces such as Golden Snake Dance and Dawn at Green Lake. He wrote songs for films and the stage, including Newsboy's Song, Graduation Song and Song of the Highway, and in 1935 composed March of the Volunteers as the theme song of the film Children of Troubled Times. All thirty-seven of his works were written in the less than two years before his death. In July 1935 he drowned while swimming off Kugenuma beach at Fujisawa, Japan, aged twenty-three.