Xian Xinghai
During the New Democracy Revolution, Xian Xinghai was one of the pioneers of Chinese revolutionary music.
He was born on June 13, 1905 (lunar calendar May 11) in Guangdong, Macau. His father was a poor fisherman. At 13, he had to work part-time to pay for his studies.
At the age of 23, Xian Xinghai entered the Shanghai Conservatory, the first establishment of its kind in China. He was expelled following a course strike. The following year (1929), he signed on as a husband on a ship going to France. He lived 5 years in Paris. To find work, he wandered, with his violin under his arm, the quays, markets, unemployment offices. He finally managed to enter the Paris Conservatory in 1931. After returning home in 1935, Xian Xinghai embarked on resistance to Japanese aggression for national salvation, led by the Communist Party.
In 1938, he arrived in Yan’an.
The following year, he became director of the music faculty at the Lu Xun Institute of Arts. He joined the party the same year. This period was very fruitful for him. His works, with varied themes and forms, exalt the struggle of the Chinese people for their liberation; they considerably stimulated his fight. Xian Xinghai due to exhaustion and malnutrition in the past, his lung disease worsened, and died of illness in 1945 at the age of 40 in Moscow.
