The Western Influences on Early Twentieth Century Chinese School Song

In early twentieth century, many Chinese scholars and intellectuals believed that the development of a new Chinese culture should follow the Western standard. School song was the earliest Western music genre taught in early twentieth century Chinese music classes. However, it was imported not only as an aesthetic subject, but also as an educational tool.In general, most of early twentieth century Chinese school songs were composed for the purpose of political propaganda. Many school song texts reflected Chinese intellectuals’ patriotism and the revolutionaries’ political expectations of the time.They spread political ideas to young Chinese students to fight against feudalism and superstition, and to studyadvanced Western Civilization and Western democracy.In addition, most of school song composers of the time were revolutionaries but not professional composers. This may be the main reason that caused the genre to lack quality.