Composer’s works inspire strong ties with Kazakhstan

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan — “Sons and daughters of China, who among you is willing to be slaughtered like oxen and sheep? We must resolve to be victorious, to defend the Yellow River! To defend North China! To defend all of China!”

The Yellow River Cantata, written by legendary Chinese composer Xian Xinghai, inspired many during World War II after it was first performed on April 13, 1939, in Northwest China’s

Yan’an, Shaanxi province.

Music knows no borders. Xian, who was stranded in the southern part of what was then the Soviet Union, and today is part of Kazakhstan, for the last two years of his life, gave local people courage and strength through his music amid the brutal war. When war broke out between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1941, the composer was working on a documentary for the

Communist Party of China under the alias of Huang Xun in Moscow. Forced to abort his mission and evacuate, he was left alone in the Kazakh city of Almaty where he knew no one and couldn’t return home.

During the most difficult moment in Xian’s life, it was Kazakh musician Bakhitzhan Baikadamov and his family who provided Xian with accommodation and food despite their limited rations.

Baldyrgan Baikadamova, Baikadamov’s daughter, recalls that Xian was never treated like an outsider in the family. As a Kazakh saying goes, “in times of trouble, people share the last piece of bread’’. This is the spirit behind the story between Xian and Baikadamov’s family.

Ding Haijia served as the first secretary of the cultural department at the Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan during the late 1990s. He was the

Chinese official who “discovered” Xian’s story and conducted research about his life in Kazakhstan.

Ding says the generosity of the Kazakh people made it possible for Xian to continue composing. Some of his most well-known works were composed during that time, including Amangeldy, a symphony in honor of Kazakh national hero Amangeldy Imanov, which served as a rallying call to fight the fascists and proved immensely popular with locals.

A monument has been erected to commemorate the Chinese composer. The words engraved on it read: “Xian Xinghai has built a bridge of friendship between the two peoples with his music. May his name be remembered forever, and the China-Kazakhstan companionship be passed on from generation to generation.”

The friendship between Xian and his Kazakh friends has been made the subject of a movie named The Composer, the first film coproduced by China and Kazakhstan and screened in 2019.