Chapter 61 Shen Xingong/Famous Modern Music Educator

Shen Xingong (1870-1947), a Chinese music educator, was born in Shanghai.His original name was Shen Qinghong, his style name was Shukui, and his pen name was Xingong. After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, a group of people with lofty ideals went east to Japan to find ways to save the country and make it stronger.Shen Xingong also went to Japan in April 1902.In Japan, what touched Shen Xingong the most was the music and song activities that played a huge role in school education, political propaganda and people's life after the Meiji Restoration.He feels that this kind of energetic and enthusiastic school singing is a good way to save the world in a poor and weak China with scattered people.So Shen Xingong organized Chinese students to set up a "Music Seminar" to study the creation of Chinese music songs. This is the first time that Chinese people hold modern music seminars.One of the earliest songs in the history of modern Chinese music, "Men with High Ambition" (originally named "Gymnastics-Soldier Exercise") was Shen Xingong's first exercise at that time.

Shen Xingong wrote more than 180 pieces of music in his life, most of which used foreign tunes, and a few used traditional Chinese folk songs to write lyrics or specially composed music.From 1904, he successively edited and published "School Singing Collection" (three episodes), "Rearranged School Song Collection" (six episodes, 1911) and "Republic of China Singing Collection" (four episodes, 1912). It was revised again in 1937, and 82 songs were selected, and compiled and published "Xinggong Singing Collection".In addition, he also translated, edited and published the book "Singing Teaching Method in Primary School".Shen Xingong's music songs have a wide range of themes: "Yellow River", "Jongjun Song" and "Patriotism", which express the spirit of patriotism; "Songs for Girls Learning", "Telegram", "Textile" and so on, which value science, played a great role in promoting the popularization of modern music.