Wartime Mass Singing

Wartime mass singing from 1931 to 1945 turned marches and choruses into instruments of mobilisation

Related

AnthemTrumpetSnare DrumStrophic Form

Time and place

Wartime mass singing began after the Mukden Incident of 1931 and lasted until victory in 1945. Its centres moved with the war: Shanghai, Wuhan, Chongqing, Guilin and Yan'an all hosted major activity. Schools, streets, theatres, barracks and radio were the main venues, and singing was often tied to fundraising, parades and troop entertainment.

What happened

Huang Zi wrote Kangdi Ge in 1931; Nie Er wrote the March of the Volunteers for the 1935 film Children of the Storm; Xian Xinghai completed the Yellow River Cantata in Yan'an in 1939 to words by Guang Weiran. Singing teams and choirs formed, songbooks were printed, and concerts and broadcasts followed. Salvation singing fused Western march, chorus and folk tune into a tool of mobilisation.

Musical features

The repertory is mainly march, in duple or quadruple time, with dotted and syncopated figures driving the step and phrases closing on slogan-like long notes. Unison, two-part and four-part writing coexist, reinforced by brass, drums and piano. Major keys dominate, with pentatonic and local colour. Lyrics use short lines and dense rhyme for easy memorisation and mass singing.

What to listen for

Hear Kangzhan Xiaodiao, a folk tune given wartime words, simple and easy to sing. Then hear Kangzhan Ge, whose phrasing approaches march and shows the discipline of group singing. Then hear Kangri Jiuwang Ge, a salvation theme reshaped in folk transmission. Finally hear Yiyongjun Ge, the folk version of Nie Er's tune, noting dotted rhythm and rising leaps. The same song could be a solo number in one town and a mass chorus in the next. None is a period original.

Common misunderstandings

Wartime singing is often assumed to be all marches. It also includes lyrical, narrative and choral works; marches simply travelled best. Another error confines it to Yan'an, though composers and singing teams in Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing mattered equally. Some think the March of the Volunteers became the national anthem at once; it was adopted as the provisional anthem in 1949 and confirmed only in 1982.

Sources

• 聂耳《义勇军进行曲》— 1935年电影《风云儿女》主题歌核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — modern music checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.