Nie Er composed the melody of China’s national anthem, “March of the Volunteers.”
The anthem began as the theme song of a 1935 Chinese film, *Children of Troubled Times*. Tian Han wrote the lyrics, and Nie Er created the music. Its urgent marching style reflected the political tensions and anti-invasion sentiment of the period.
The song became closely associated with resistance during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The People’s Republic of China later designated it as its national anthem in 1949. The anthem’s status and wording were subsequently affected by political changes, before its original lyrics were formally restored in 1982.
Nie Er died in Japan in 1935, shortly after composing the melody. He is therefore remembered as the anthem’s composer even though he did not live to see its later adoption as the national anthem.