The Seven Great Singing Stars () were seven singers of China in the 1940s.
Background Several of the stars acted in films, and their music played a prominent role in developing Chinese cinema. They dominated the Chinese pop music industry in the 1930s and 1940s, which was centered in Shanghai, and often performed in a genre known as Shidaiqu (). Amongst the earliest of the stars to emerge in the 1930s were Zhou Xuan, Gong Qiuxia, Yao Lee, and Bai Hong. In the 40s, Bai Guang, Li Xianglan (Yoshiko Yamaguchi), and Wu Yingyin also became popular, and these seven were grouped as the seven great singing stars of the period.
Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese starting from 1937 to 1945. Yoshiko, who was Japanese, came to prominence in this period although her Japanese ancestry was not revealed at that time. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, there began a large migration of people from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and the CCP also denounced Shanghai popular music as Yellow Music (), a form of pornography, which effectively ended this period in Shanghai. The film and music industry had already begun to shift to Hong Kong in the '40s, and by the 1950s Hong Kong had become the centre of the entertainment industry. While some of the seven continued to perform for many years, Zhou Xuan died in 1957, Yoshiko retired from entertainment in 1958, and Bai Guang stopped recording in 1959.
The stars Stage name Sobriquet Years active Best-known hits Bai Guang Queen of the Low Voice 1943–1959 Bai Hong White Rainbow 1931–1979 Gong Qiuxia Big Sister 1933–1980 Li Xianglan Japan's Judy Garland 1938–1958 Wu Yingyin Queen of the Nasal Voice 1945–2008 Yao Lee Silvery Voice 1935–1975 Zhou Xuan Golden Voice 1932–1954
See also C-pop, an overview of Chinese popular music Mandopop, the Mandarin-language subgenre Four Heavenly Kings (Hong Kong), for the male counterpart
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