Chen Gexin

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Chen Gexin (Chinese: 陳歌辛; pinyin: Chén Gēxīn; Wade-Giles: Ch'en Ko-hsin; pen names: 林枚 Lín Méi, 慶餘 Qìng Yú, 1914-1961) was a Chinese popular music songwriter.

1 Biography
2 Music
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Chen was born into an elite family and had a grandfather from India. He was jailed during the occupation of Shanghai by Japanese forces during Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II) for his patriotic songs.

With the Communist seizure of power in China in 1949, popular music was considered ideologically suspect^[1] and Chen was labeled a rightist and imprisoned in a laogai for "reform through labor" in 1957. He died soon after at the age of 47.

Chen Gexin was the father, with a Hungarian pianist, of Chinese classical composer Chen Gang (陈刚 Chén Gāng) and grandfather of China's first "Miss Internet," Chen Fanhong.^[2]

[edit] Music

Chen was the composer of famous mid-20th century popular standards as "Shanghai at Night" (夜上海) sung by Zhou Xuan and "In The Mood For Love" (花樣年華). His song "Rose, Rose, I Love You," sung by American singer Frankie Laine 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, "Wishing You Happiness and Prosperity," originally written to celebrate the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, has become a popular Chinese New Year standard. His music continues to be performed and is featured in films such as Eros.