Yan Shixin from Shanghai played as a left back in the 1940s and 1950s. There, he played for the Li Do team in the A Group in the 1939-40 season, before he went to Hong Kong to join the Eastern Sports Club to become runner-up in the A League. After the war, he returned to Shanghai to play for Tsing Peh as part of a famous pair of defenders. In 1950, he went to Hong Kong again wearing the colors of Kwong Wah and occasionally of Sing Tao. Yan frequently represented Hong Kong and the Republic of China internationally including at the 1948 London Olympics. At the 1954 Asian Games, he won the football gold medal as captain of the Chinese team.
People's Republic of China