Wishing to raise the morale of the Chinese people facing the invasion by Japan, she sang the patriotic song The Great Wall Ballad (长城谣) at concerts in Wuhan and Singapore which were highly regarded and inspired financial aid and the conscription of soldiers for the war effort.

[2] In 1946 Zhou was a featured soloist at the first Prague Spring International Music Festival; a performance which earned her the nickname the "Chinese nightingale".

[2] While at the festival she became acquainted with many luminary musicians of the 20th century, including Leonard Bernstein, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

[2] In 1949 she became acquainted with Premier Zhou Enlai and writers Ba Jin and Ding Ling at a cultural conference on literature and art organized by the Chinese government.

[3][2] She spent the next ten years performing wherever the Chinese government sent her; whether it be for everyday people at factories and shipyards, or on official tours overseas to the countries of India, Poland, North Korea, and the Soviet Union.

With the rise of the Cultural Revolution, Western music was no longer accepted by those in power and Zhou found herself out of favor.

[2] However, it was not until Deng Xiaoping came into office in 1978 that Zhou was able to achieve the freedom and support she needed to build a high quality opera program.

In 1988 she established the Zhou Xiaoyan Young Opera Singers Trainee Center on the fourth floor of the Shanghai Conservatory.

[2] With the financial backing of the Nanjing government she coordinated a fully staged production of Verdi's Rigoletto in the Chinese language in 1989 at the Shanghai Music Festival with her students as the cast.