March of the Volunteers

义勇军进行曲
義勇軍進行曲

English: March of the Volunteers
Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ
Original album released by Pathé Records of Shanghai.
National anthem of	People's Republic of China  Macau  Hong Kong
Lyrics	Tian Han, 1934
Music	Nie Er, 1935
Adopted	1949-09-27 (provisional national anthem in mainland China)[1] 1982-12-04 (official status) 1997-07-01 (in Hong Kong)[2] 1999-12-20 (In Macau)[3] 2004-03-14 (Attained constitutional status)[4]
Music sample
March of the Volunteers (Instrumental)

March of the Volunteers (simplified Chinese: 义勇军进行曲; traditional Chinese: 義勇軍進行曲; pinyin: Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ) is the national anthem of the People's Republic of China (including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since July 1, 1997 and the Macau Special Administrative Region since December 20, 1999), written by the noted poet and playwright Tian Han with music composed by Nie Er. This composition is a musical march. The piece was first performed as part of a 1934 Shanghai play and its original lyrics are the official lyrics of the national anthem. In 2004, a provision that the March of the Volunteers be the national anthem was added to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China as Article 136.

Origins as National Anthem

The earliest form of the 1935 Volunteers Marching On anthem still in the pre-Communist traditional Chinese characters in the Denton Gazette [3] newspaper

March of the Volunteers was written by Tian Han during the 1934 Republic of China era for a play he was writing at the time. Popular stories suggest, however, that he wrote it on a tobacco paper after being arrested in Shanghai and thrown into a Kuomintang (KMT) jail in 1935. The song, with a minor alteration, became the theme song of the 1935 patriotic film Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm, a story about an intellectual who leaves to fight in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was one of many songs that were promoted secretly among the population as part of the anti-Japanese resistance. The song was released as an album by the Pathé label of EMI in 1935.

It was used as the national anthem for the first time in an international conference in February 1949 held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. At the time Beijing had recently come into the control of the Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War. There was controversy over the line "The Chinese nation faces its greatest peril". Historian Guo Moruo changed the line to "The Chinese people have come to their moment of emancipation" (simplified Chinese: 中国民族到了大翻身的时候; traditional Chinese: 中國民族到了大翻身的時候).

In June, a committee was set up by the Communist Party of China to decide on an official national anthem for the soon-to-be declared People's Republic of China. By the end of August, the committee had received 6,926 submissions. March of the Volunteers was suggested by painter Xu Beihong and almost unanimously supported by the members of the committee. There was contention, however, over the issue of the third line. On this Zhou Enlai made the conclusive judgement: "We still have imperialist enemies in front of us. The more we progress in development, the more the imperialists will hate us, seek to undermine us, attack us. Can you say that we won't be in peril?" His view was supported by Mao Zedong and on 27 September 1949, the song became the provisional national anthem, just days before the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Cultural Revolution and later history

During the Cultural Revolution, Tian Han was imprisoned, and the March of the Volunteers was therefore forbidden to be sung; as a result there was a period of time when "The East Is Red" was used as the unofficial national anthem. The only time it was played was at the 20th PRC National Day Parade in 1969.

The March of the Volunteers was restored by the National People's Congress in 1978, but with different lyrics; however, these new lyrics were never very popular and caused a great deal of confusion. For example, the last sentence of the lyrics read "raise high Chairman Mao's banner".

During China's 1981 volleyball World Cup victories, both the old and new lyrics were sung simultaneously amongst fans.^[5] On 4 December 1982, the National People's Congress resolved to restore the original 1935 version by Tian Han as the official national anthem. Of note, the current lyrics do not mention either the Communist Party of China nor Mao Zedong and the reversion of the lyrics was symbolic of the downfall of Hua Guofeng and the cult of personality of Mao and the ascendancy of Deng Xiaoping.

The National People's Congress made the song the official PRC anthem in a 2004 amendment of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. The anthem is mentioned immediately after the national flag.

Although popular among Nationalists during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the song was banned in the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan, until the 1990s.

Sheet music from Appendix 4 of Law n.o 5/1999 of Macau

The anthem was performed in an official capacity in Hong Kong for the first time^[6] following the handover of the territory to the PRC in 1997, and the handover of Macau in 1999.

The use of the anthem in Macau, China is governed in Law n.o 5/1999 (zh:第5/1999號法律, pt:Lei de Macau 5 de 1999) since 20 December 1999. Article 7 of the Law requires the national anthem to be accurately performed pursuant to the sheet music in Appendix 4 and prohibits the lyrics from being altered. Willfully failing to follow the sheet music or altering the lyric when performing the national anthem in public is criminally punishable by imprisonment of up to 3 years or up to 360 day-fines. The sheet music in Appendix 4 has the lyric in Chinese only without Portuguese translation even though both Chinese and Portuguese are official languages of Macau. There are no analogous laws in Hong Kong or in mainland China.

The anthem is written completely in Vernacular Chinese, while the "National Anthem of the Republic of China" is written in Classical Chinese.

Lyrics

Official lyrics (original and currently in use)

Altered lyrics (1978-1982; unofficial or not amended to constitution)

• The rhythm in this line is actually slightly altered, though the number of syllables is the same as with the original.

Musical references

It is not unexpected that the tune has been referenced in other musical compositions.

• The American musician Paul Robeson sang it in Russia and the USA (for an audience of 7,000 at an open concert in New York City in 1940), both in English and Chinese, with his own modified lyrics to more specifically address African Americans, as he also did with his unofficial translation of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union. In both cases he kept the tune of the original song.^[10][11]
• The Slovenian group Laibach created an electronic version of the anthem with lyrics in both English and Mandarin^[12] for their album Volk.^[13]
• The British musician Damon Albarn included a loose and upbeat version in his soundtrack based on the stage musical Monkey: Journey to the West.^[14]

See also

• Historical Chinese anthems

Notes

External links

• China's National Anthem
• The March of the Volunteers, instrumental and then chorus.
• March of the Volunteers, sung in Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm.
• Video with singing chorus
• Video of the 1978-1982 version, with lyrics first in Simplified Chinese, then English
• Info
• Paul Robeson - Singing in Chinese, then English