Yao Lee (Chinese: 姚莉, also credited as Yao Li, Yiu Lei and Hue Lee; 19 July 1922 – 19 July 2019) was a leading voice of Chinese popular music in the mid-20th century. Born in Shanghai, she rose to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s as part of the city's vibrant recording and entertainment scene. She is widely remembered for the 1940 recording of the song "Rose, Rose, I Love You", which later attracted international attention when an English-language version became a hit abroad.
Musical style and recordings
Yao Lee is associated with shidaiqu, a style that blended traditional Chinese melodies with Western popular and jazz arrangements. Her singing was noted for a clear, sweet timbre and an ability to handle both upbeat, jazz-inflected numbers and sentimental ballads. Many of her recordings were made with arrangements that reflected the cosmopolitan tastes of pre-war Shanghai, and she continued to record through the 1950s and into the 1970s after relocating to Hong Kong.
Career and collaborations
Yao Lee often worked with songwriters and studio musicians of her era, including her brother, the songwriter and producer Yao Min, who wrote and arranged material for many singers. She was commonly counted among Shanghai's most successful commercial recording artists of the 1940s, sometimes described as one of the city's "Seven Great Singing Stars." Over a career spanning roughly four decades she recorded hundreds of songs and appeared in radio and film projects associated with the recording industry of mainland China and later Hong Kong.
Selected songs and legacy
- Rose, Rose, I Love You (1940) — original Chinese version that later inspired an English adaptation recorded overseas.
- Various shidaiqu and popular ballads from the 1940s–1960s that influenced later Mandarin and Cantonese pop singers.
Yao Lee's recordings are often cited by historians of Chinese popular music as emblematic of Shanghai's golden age of popular song. After many years living and working in Hong Kong she died there on 19 July 2019 at the age of 96 (Hong Kong), leaving a legacy as one of the voices that bridged Eastern and Western popular music influences in 20th-century China.