Produced by the United Photoplay Service, it served as a showcase of the studio's possibilities.
It consists of eight segments of various duration and genre, directed by eight prominent directors of the era: Cai Chusheng, Fei Mu, He Mengfu, Situ Huimin, Shen Fu, Sun Yu, Tan Youliu, and Zhu Shilin.
Some, like Sun Yu's The Big Road (1934), Cai Chusheng's The Spring River Flows East (1947), Fei Mu's Spring in a Small Town (1948), or Shen Fu's Myriad of Lights (1949) often reappear on many "best Chinese films of all time" lists.
In this respect, today Lianhua Symphony can be considered an overview of short films created by the most important directors of the so-called "first generation" of Chinese filmmakers.
Fei Mu's segment about women having bad dreams, Nightmares in Spring Chamber, is clearly and heavily influenced by German Expressionist cinema.