Yao Min, born Yao Zhenmin in Shanghai in 1917, came from a comfortably-off family and spent his childhood at the Great World amusement park absorbing local opera. After his father's death he spent several years as a sailor, which sparked an interest in Western popular music. Returning to Shanghai in the late 1930s, he formed a performing group with his sisters Yao Ying and Yao Li, running their own song programmes on several radio stations, and led a small band at the Great World's Qitian stage, where he produced part of a serial Peking opera. Largely self-taught on several instruments and in composition, he later studied under the Japanese composer Ryoichi Hattori. He joined Pathé's Shanghai studio in 1938 and entered the Guohua Film Company in 1939 as a film composer, his first score being for a 1941 Zhou Xuan vehicle. His career was interrupted by the war, but afterwards he composed prolifically and his records were popular across China and Southeast Asia. He came to Hong Kong in 1950 and worked in radio, joining Pathé when it opened a Hong Kong office in 1952 to head its composition department. In 1954 he first handled both score and soundtrack for a Wang Yin film, and in 1955 wrote songs for a Shaw production starring Li Xianglan. An interlude he wrote for a 1956 film was adapted into the famous 'Ding Dong Song' for the Hollywood picture The World of Suzie Wong (1960). He wrote many songs for Motion Picture and General Investment films, including the 1959 musical that won Best Music at the 6th Asian Film Festival, while his Shaw score for Les Belles (1961) won Best Music at the 8th Asian Film Festival and the first Golden Horse Award for Best Music. He died suddenly in March 1967.
One of the foremost composers of the golden age of Mandarin popular song, Yao had hits across China and Southeast Asia. From Flower of Understanding to Les Belles, he fused Western popular music with Chinese melody, collecting Asian Film Festival and Golden Horse music prizes, and left a lasting mark on Chinese-language film songs and pop.
Achievements
- 1938 · Joined the Pathé record company in Shanghai
- 1941 · Made his film-composing debut on a 1941 picture
- 1961 · Won the first Golden Horse Award for Best Music for Les Belles