A Daughter’s Recollection: Xu Ru-Hui and Chinese Early Motion Picture Music

One of the early explorers in motion picture music in China, Xu Ru-Hui, was born in July 1910 in Zhejiang. He arrived in Shanghai with his uncle in 1923 and joined the United Music Association of Shanghai, which was led by the Chinese music master Zheng Jian-Wen at the time, in 1925. He studied national classic music there including performance and composition, mastering over a hundred types of Chinese instruments. By the late 1920s, he had formed his own band called Midnight National Music, and had become one of the most famous pop music composers in Shanghai.