Final Project: The Music Behind the Creation of Communist China

The Music Behind the Creation of Communist China

Chinese history has been intertwined with music since the time of Confucius. It has been said that Confucius could identify the character of a state by listening to its’ music (Tuohy, 112). During the 20th Century, China has struggled to establish a national identity, particularly in the face of foreign and local wars. In these liner notes I will explore the history of music’s role in the Chinese establishment of a Communist state. I will examine the close relationship between politics and music in China, as well as the increasing relationship between Chinese and Western music in the 20th century. Within this examination of the involvement of music in a Chinese national identity, I will integrate Thomas Turino’s framework for nationalism and musical nationalism.

In 1918 after the Versailles Treaty was signed, the May Fourth Movement, which consisted of intellectuals who had been frustrated with the state for sometime, took control of the cultural and intellectual spheres of China. Some of these intellectuals thought that the traditional music of local Chinese communities should be discredited, while others thought that traditional music should be brought up do date. One of the significant types of music that emerged out of this music was commercialized popular songs (Wong 383). Those that thought traditional folk music was important helped start the Folk Music Collection movement in 1919 (Tuohy). Musical and cultural leaders during this time searched for a national identity and a national anthem to represent this identity as China faced foreign and civil wars.

1921 marked the beginning of a struggle between the Chinese Communist party and the Nationalist party, which resulted in a civil war after WWII. The Communist party won and Mao Zedong announced the beginning of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Tiananmen Square (Wong, 385). Before the PRC won the civil war, several prominent composers began writing protest songs that combined elements of the folk song with Western musical styles. One such composer, Xian Xinghai wrote the “Yellow River Cantata” in 1939, about people who were struggling in the 1940s. In China, the Yellow River is a metaphor for the “nation, its beauty, power and hardships” (Tuohy, 113).

This cantata was inspired by a patriotic poem by Guang Weiran, whose lyrics were adapted as the lyrics in the cantata. The original version of the cantata is written in seven movements, entitled “Song of the Yellow River Boatmen,” “Ode to the Yellow River,” “Ballad of the Yellow Waters,” “Dialogue Song by the Yellow River,” “Lament to the Yellow River,” “Defending the Yellow River,” and “Shout Aloud, Yellow River!” The poem was written by Weiran, after he led the Third Resistance theatre troupe across the Yellow River to the center of anti-Japanese resistance in the Shanxi province. The music itself is full of militaristic themes in movements like the first, whereas in movements like the second, the “Ode to the Yellow River” there is a more calm reflection and collaboration with the speaker who is reciting Weiran’s poem often in an operatic manner. The orchestration is heavily influenced by Western styles of writing, as Xinghai studied under Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory, however there are elements of Chinese folk music throughout the whole piece. This piece, which began a popular symbol of resistance did very well in China and even lasted until the 1960s when a pianist, Yin Chengzong, adapted it for piano and orchestra.

Before I explore any of the other composers who wrote political music at this time, I will move briefly to a discussion of the collaboration between music, politics and national identity that pervades so much of this music. Turino defines nationalism as an entity that has aspirations to sovereignty and creates cultural commonality among various groups. The Chinese Communist Party has done just this in China in the last 2/3 of the 20th century. They currently recognize fifty-six ethnic categories within their definition of the Chinese nation. This national identity has been purposefully created, and just as music has played a critical role in Chinese history for thousands of years, it plays a critical role in the creation of the Chinese Communist State.

In Turino’s musical nationalist framework, music used for such political reasons is often militaristic and patriotic. This is precisely what the Chinese Communist state did in order to organize mass numbers of people into believing they were all part of the Chinese state. The new music of nationalism “was to present society through the eyes of the masses and to show the inevitable success of the revolution, so that the masses would be uplifted and be willingly mobilized for nation building” (Wong, 386). There were many such programs that worked to mobilize the masses through music, but I will just mention a few of them.

One program in the 1930s and 1940s organized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formed music worker groups to work at the grassroots level to be involved with the kind of society the CCP was trying to create. An academy like the Lu Xun Academy in Yan’an in 1938 revised local folk music “with new ideological content, then brought it back to the people to disseminate, and organized musical troupes of all types to popularize the new music of the socialist state” (Tuohy, 113). The action by the state of revising local music and then disseminating with an ideological twist fits into Turino’s category called Reformist musical nationalism. This is when the local cultural practices are reformed to modern techniques.

Another fascinating program was the loudspeaker program that was heard all over the country before the 1990s. After 1990 this kind of program declined, but it is still heard in work places particularly in the rural areas. The loudspeakers were heard on the sides of public buildings, trains, residential centers and “they broke up the day into aurally marked temporal units that followed a schedule: morning wake-up music, exercise music” (Tuohy, 123), etc, and the speakers always played “The East is Red” every morning.

It is clear that China’s involvement of music in its formation of the Chinese Communist nation fits into Turino’s framework of musical nationalism. In his discussion of Latin American states, he discusses the role of the national anthem in the legitimacy of a state. Although China’s national anthem doesn’t hold the same kind of weight as a Latin American state because it is more established, the national anthems for China since 1949 can serve to tell an interesting story of transitions during communist rule.

In 1949 the “March of the Volunteers,” written by poet and playwright Tian Han and musician Nie Er in 1935, became the national anthem of the People’s Republic of China. It lasted until the 1960s, when in the Cultural Revolution Tian Han was imprisoned and the song was forbidden to be sung. During this time the song “The East is Red” was used as an unofficial anthem. This song, having distinct association with Mao Zedong, was removed and replaced by the “March of the Volunteers” in 1978 by the National People’s Congress. This version of the march included no mention of Mao Zedong and this symbolized the fall of Mao and the ascension of Deng Xiaoping.

Throughout the transitions between these two national anthems, it becomes clear that both songs were used to represent the political aims of each party and its aims. The way that the “March of The Volunteers” lyrics were changed during Mao Zedong’s rule shows that the music was a tool of the government to maneuver and manipulate the masses. Here are the two versions of the “March of the Volunteers” lyrics, the first is the official and original lyrics and the second are the lyrics that were changed by Mao:

Arise! All who refuse to be slaves!
Let our flesh and blood become our new Great Wall!
As the Chinese nation faces its greatest peril,
All forcefully expend their last cries.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Our million hearts beat as one,
Brave the enemy’s fire, March on!
Brave the enemy’s fire, March on!
March on! March on! On!
* * * *
March on! People of all heroic nationalities!
The great Communist Party leads us in continuing the Long March ,
Millions with but one heart toward a communist tomorrow,
Develop and protect the country in a brave struggle.
March on, march on, march on!
We will for generations,
Raise high Mao Zedong’s banner, march on!
Raise high Mao Zedong’s banner, march on!
March on! March on! On!

The music itself in the song is full of trumpet fanfares, and the overall style is militaristic and patriotic. There are a lot of dotted rhythms, drum rolls, and stately singing by a large choir.

The song that replaced the “March of the Volunteers” during the Cultural Revolution, “The East is Red” is derived from a local folk song, whose lyrics are attributed to Li Youyuan from the Shaanxi region. The East is Red also became a song and dance epic that promoted Communisim, in particular Maoism in the 1960s. I was unable to find a youtube clip of “The East is Red” song, so here is a portion of the song and dance epic. However, the naxos version of “The East is Red” starts with a trumpet fanfare and follows with a large chorus, just the same structure as the “March of the Volunteers”. The lyrics to the song are as follows:

The east is red, the sun is rising
China has brought forth a Mao Zedong.
He works for the people’s welfare.
Hurrah, He is the people’s great savior.

Chairman Mao loves the people,
He is our guide,
To build a new China,
Hurrah, he leads us forward!

The Communist Party is like the sun,
Wherever it shines, it is bright.
Wherever there is a Communist Party,
Hurrah, there the people are liberated!

Since “March of the Volunteers” basically sounds the same musically as the “East is Red”, the interesting aspect of these songs to compare is the lyrics. In the “March of the Volunteers” the lyrics describe the nation of China as a whole and emphasizes the force and strength of the country. In “The East is Red” the focus is on Mao and how he can lead the country, rather than the people of the Chinese state.

Before summing up these liner notes, there are several issues I would like to address. First, Nie Er was not only well-known for writing the music to “The March of the Volunteers.” He was a prolific composer of protest music, which is why he is so heavily featured in this CD. It is clear that with the collaboration of Western and Chinese musical approaches in these politically charged songs, the involvement of Western style of music was not frowned upon by the Chinese Communist parties. Bringing traditional folk music up to date for the Chinese included incorporating Western style of music. This can be seen clearly in the transformation of the Yellow Road Cantata into a piano concerto that is performed all over the world today by the best known pianists. It is even seen in the protest music itself, with works like the the “Yellow Road Cantata” that use western style operatic writing.

The creation of China’s nationalist identity in the 20th century involved many struggles against other countries and political formations within the Chinese state. One of the main ways the Communist Party achieved the involvement of mass amounts of people into the communist ideological approach to the state was through music and songs. The loudspeakers, protest songs and marches, creation of a Chinese musical Canon, and many other tactics all worked together to create a oneness and unification, which allowed the idea of a Chinese Nation as it is known today, to be born. In this CD, I hope to capture some of the collaboration between the traditional and modern, as well as the collaboration between the East and the West.

CD List
1. Yellow River Cantata (34 minutes) by Xing Xinghai
2. September Eighteenth Cantata (time unknown) by Xing Xinghai
3. Village Girl Beyond the Great Wall (7 min) by Nie Er
4. Leaving Southeast Asia (13 min) by Nie Er
5. Song of Mei Niang (6 min 38 sec) by Nie Er
6. March of the Volunteers (1 min 30 sec) by Nie Er
7. Song of the Newsboy (3 min 52 sec) by Nie Er
8. Song of the Borad Road (7 min) by Nie Er
9. Song of the Whirling Flowers (8 min 50 sec) by Nie Er
10. The East is Red (4 min 32 sec)
11. Blood-Dyed Gallantry (3 min) by Tie Su
12. My Motherland (4 minutes) by Chi Liu

Bibliography

Wong, Isabel K. F. “Nationalism, Westernization, and Modernization.” Provine, Robert C. et al., ed. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music volume 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea. New York and London: Routledge, 2002.

Rees, Helen. “Music and Chinese Society: The People’s Republic of China.” Provine, Robert C. et al., ed. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music volume 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea. New York and London: Routledge, 2002.

Tuohy, Sue. “The Sonic Dinensions of Nationalism in Modern China: Musical Representation and Transformation” Ethnomusicology, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2001: 107-131.

Turino, Thomas. “Nationalism and Latin American Music: Selected Case Studies and Theoretical Considerations” Latin American Music Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2003: 169-209.