Composer to show Xian Xinghai's tough Soviet years

A wax sculpture of composer Xian Xinghai is displayed at the National Museum of China in Beijing. [Photo/CFP]

In Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, a street is named after Chinese composer Xian Xinghai.

The musician, known for the piece Yellow River Cantata, was stranded there after a pro-Kuomintang warlord blocked his return to China. He died in Moscow in 1945.

Jonathan Shen, founder of Shinework Pictures, a Beijing-based studio that works on coproductions with foreign companies, tells China Daily that his company has teamed up with Kazakhstan filmmakers to make a biopic on Xian called Composer.

Shen's knowledge of his subject came from a speech delivered by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Kazakhstan in 2013.

Shen says he regards it his responsibility to let people know about Xian's story.

Xian was sent by the Communist Party of China to the former Soviet Union to compose scores for a documentary titled Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army, which was about the CPC revolutionary base fighting the Japanese invasion of China.

To cover his real identity in Kazakhstan, the musician used an alias. So when he was harbored by a local musician, the latter didn't know whom he had rescued from starvation. During that time, Xian composed several famous musical works.

"A key to international coproductions is to tell a story that appeals to different markets," says Shen, 51.

Shen began his television career in 2000when he founded World Film Report, a popular weekly program aired on movie channel CCTV 6. Over the past 16 years, the show has produced around 2,000 episodes, featuring interviews with more than 3,000 filmmakers in some 80 countries across the world.