Li Jinhui
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Li Jinhui was a composer and songwriter from Shanghai. He is an early example or predecessor of what would become C-pop. That said he fits, at best, uneasily as a C-pop musician in the modern sense. He began in the 1920s doing music for children to popularize Mandarin and in this capacity is known for Chinese opera. His operas for children include The Sparrow and the Child and The Little Painter He later became known for the music ancestral to Chinese pop.
This music was a blend of jazz, Chinese folk melody, and Hollywood film music that became known as shidai qu or modern song. The critics derided it as "Huangse Yinyue", Yellow music, because of its sexual associations. That led it to being derided as pornographic. In the 1930s "Li's Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe" produced or trained several figures in Chinese musicals, for example Zhou Xuan.
