Nie Er

Nie Er (14 February 1912 – 17 July 1935), born Nie Shouxin, courtesy name Ziyi (子義 or 紫藝), was a Chinese composer best known for "March of the Volunteers", the national anthem of People's Republic of China.

In numerous Shanghai magazines, he went by the English name George Njal, after a character in Njal's Saga.

Nie Er's ancestors were from Yuxi, Yunnan, in southwest China.

He was born in Kunming, Yunnan.

From an early age he displayed an interest in music.

From 1918 he studied at the Kunming Normal School's Affiliated 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 piano.

In June 1931, Nie Er entered the Mingyue Musical Drama Society as a violinist.

In July 1932 he published A Short Treatise on Chinese Song and Dance, in which he criticized the Drama Society's president, Li Jinhui, as a result of which he was removed from the society.

Prior to joining the Lianhua Film Studio in November 1932, he took part in shaping the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe.

He later joined the musical group of the Friends of the Soviet Union Society.

He also organized the Chinese Contemporary Music Research Group, which participated in the Leftist Dramatist's Union.

In 1933, he joined the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1933, he impersonated an African American miner in the film The Light of Maternal Instinct.

In April 1934, Nie Er joined Pathé Records and managed the musical section.

In the same year he founded the Pathé National Orchestra.

This was a prolific year for him in terms of musical output.

In January 1935 he became the director of the musical department of Lianhua Number Two Studio.

In April 1935, Nie Er went to Japan to meet his elder brother in Tokyo.

There, he composed the "March of the Volunteers", which would later become the national anthem of China.

When Shouxin was young he showed signs of musical talent.

He was able to imitate the voices of people he knew, and almost any sound that entered his ears.

He could learn any song just by listening to it twice.

Thus, people began to call him "Ears" (耳).

In addition to having musically trained ears, Shouxin was able to move each of his ears independently.

This earned him another nickname, "Doctor Ears".

Shouxin felt that his nickname is interesting and said that "Since friends give Me One more ears, I will have one more ears from now on".

Later on, he changed his name to be Nie Er (聂耳).

On July 17, 1935, he died while swimming in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan, at the age of twenty-three.

He may have been en route to the Soviet Union, passing through Japan to receive training, sent by the Chinese Communist Party.

Some suspect that he was killed by the Japanese, while others believe that he was killed by Chinese Nationalists, as he was in Japan to flee from them.

However, because he disappeared while swimming with friends, this made the possibility of assassination difficult and highly unlikely.

Evidence points to drowning as the most probable cause of death.

He was found by the local rescue team the following day.

According to the rescue team and the police, his body was not different from those of ordinary drowned bodies.

Nie Er wrote a total of 37 pieces in his life, all in the three years before his death.