The Making of a National Icon: Commemorating Nie Er, 1935–1949

The choice of his song, “March of the Volunteers,” as the PRC’s national anthem catapulted Nie Er to fame, but the groundwork for his iconic status began soon after his death in 1935. This article examines the relationship between the politics of commemoration and the development of sonic nationalism, in both its textual and performative dimensions, between 1935 and 1949. I argue that Nie’s mass songs both represented and served as media for the expression of a class-inflected nationalism. Leftist cultural workers highlighted Nie’s music and compositional method to advocate “popularization” and to reject the popular music associated with Li Jinhui and “academy” music informed by the Western musical tradition. Nie’s iconic status derived from a combination of Communist cultural policies, grassroots mobilization in the form of the national salvation choral movement, and the international reception accorded to his “March of the Volunteers” as mediated by Liu Liangmo and Paul Robeson.