Chen Gexin (; September 19, 1914 – January 25, 1961) was a Chinese

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. He also used the

pen names A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Lín Méi () and Qìng Yú (). Chen Gexin was beaten to death in his sleep during the

Anti-Rightist Campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign w ...

Biography

Chen was born on September 19, 1914, to a low social status family but a wealthy maternal Indian grandfather. He married his admirer and student Jin Jiaoli, against her Korean family's wishes in 1935. During World War II, he was jailed by the Japanese puppet regime for his patriotic songs. Chen and his family moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

after the war ended. With the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

seizure of power in China in 1949, popular music was considered ideologically suspect and Chen was labeled a

rightist Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property, r ...

and imprisoned in a ''

laogai ''Laogai'' (), short for ''laodong gaizao'' (), which means reform through labor, is a criminal justice system involving the use of penal labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China (PRC). ''Láogǎi'' is different from ''láo ...

'' for "reform through labor" at ,

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

, in 1957, there he befriended a journalist named Ai Yi. According to an essay and reports by Ai Yi, Chen Gexin was beaten to death during the

. He was buried in the mass grave at the hill near the farm. A year later, Chen's widow Jin Jiaoli went there with a box to search through the dead bodies in a vain effort to collect his remains. He was rehabilitated in 1979.

Music

Throughout his life, Chen has produced more than 200 songs. On top of that, he conducted symphony orchestras and held recitals for many times. Chen was the composer of famous mid-20th century popular standards such as "Shanghai Nights" () and "The Blossom of Youth" (), both sung by

Zhou Xuan Zhou Xiaohong (; born Su Pu; August 1, 1920 – September 22, 1957), known professionally as Zhou Xuan (), also romanized as Chow Hsuan (), was a Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of China's Seven Great Si ...

. His song ''

Rose, Rose, I Love You "Rose, Rose, I Love You" () is a 1940 Mandarin popular song composed by Chen Gexin and first recorded by Yao Lee. An English-language version whose lyrics have little in common with the original Mandarin was first recorded by Frankie Laine in ...

'', sung by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

singer

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

in 1951, is the only major popular music hit in the United States by a Chinese composer. When Chen's youngest son went to the United States for advanced education, he was able to meet Laine and thereafter maintained a correspondence. Another of his songs titled, "

Gongxi Gongxi "Gongxi Gongxi" (), mistranslated in public as "Wishing You Happiness and Prosperity" (which is the meaning of ''gōngxǐ fācái''恭喜發財), is a popular Mandarin Chinese song and a Chinese Lunar New Year standard. Other English titles fo ...

" () was originally written to celebrate the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War and has become a popular

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival (see also #Names, § Names), is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is one of the most important holi ...

standard. His music continues to be performed and is featured in films such as ''

Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

''.

Descendants

Chen Gexin and his wife Jin Jiaoli () are the parents of Chinese classical composer Chen Gang, and grandfather of China's first Miss Internet, Chen Fanhong."Handicapped Miss Internet blasts mag"
at Enablenet - News

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Gexin Chinese songwriters 1914 births 1961 deaths Musicians from Shanghai 20th-century Chinese musicians Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign Chinese people of Indian descent