Nie Er, famous Chinese composer, was born on February 14th, 1912 in Kun Ming, Yunnan province. In 1918, he was enrolled by Affiliated Elementary School of Kunming Normal School. At school, he had an excellent performance in academic studies, and was also very interested in music. In his spare time, he learned to perform musical instrument of folk music, like flute, erhu fiddle, trichord, yu-kin, etc, from folk musicians. In 1925, he was enrolled by the First Associate Middle School of Yunnan Province. At this time, Nie Er was gradually influenced by progressive publications and revolutionary songs like the Internationale. In 1927, he was matriculated by Yunnan First Normal School. He, along with his friends, organized "99 Music Society". He often participated in various music and drama performances, and began to learn to perform violin and piano.

In November, 1930, Nie Er joined "Grand League against Imperialism" in Shanghai. In March, 1931, He assumed violin in "Bright Moon Opera Society", and learned piano, harmonics, and composition by himself. In April, 1932, he got to know the left-wing playwright and peot, Tian Han. Then he established the communication with left-wing art circles. His friendship and cooperation with Tian Han had had profound influence on his art achievement. In August, 1932, he went to Beijing to actively participate in the performances and organization construction of Peking League of Left-wing playwright and musicians. He also continued learning violin from a foreign teacher Tonov. In November, he came back to Shanghai.

Soon after he went back to Shanghai, Nie Er began to work in Lian Hua Film Company. With great passion and energy, he participated in the work of left-wing music, dramas, movies, and engaged in composition and comment activities. He also joined the music club of "Friends of Soviet Union", and organized "China Seminar of New Music". He then joined the music club of China Left-wing Dramatists' League. In 1933, Nie Er began to attempted composition. He composed Song of Mining, and Song of Paper-boy, which gave people a fresh feeling. In April, 1934, Nie Er started to work in EMI, and hosted music department with Ren Guang, when they recorded some progressive songs. For Nie Er, this year was fruitful. He composed many famous songs and tunes, such as Song of Main Street, Pioneer, Song of Dockers, Spring Morning of Gorgeous Lake, etc. In 1935, he composed a series of songs, including the Militia March, which was chosen as national anthem after the founding of new China.

On April 18th, 1935, Nie Er arrived in Tokyo. In Japan, he reviewed the trend of Japanese music, dramas, and movies. He introduced the new development of Chinese music to the Japanese art circle, and pressed on with the learning of foreign language and music. On July 17th, he was unfortunately drowned in Japan, at the age of 23.

In his short life, Nie Er only had two years engaged in music composition. However, he had totally composed 41 pieces of musical works, including main themes or incidental music for eight movies, three plays, and one living theater, other songs, and adapted folk music.