March of the Volunteers - Chinese National Anthem. 中華人民共和国国歌
March of the Volunteers
Chinese National Anthem.
中華人民共和国国歌
Tian Han---China national anthem lyric writer
I have lived in Australia for one year now. So I haven’t listened to the Chinese national anthem for a long time. I watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and I was able to hear the Chinese national anthem again. This song has been my companion for forty years. When I hear it I am very excited This song lets you have strong feelings. I love my country. The person who wrote this song’s lyrics was Tian Han.
Tian Han was a famous writer. He wrote sixty or more dramas, several operas, twenty-four film scripts and 2000 poems. During the Japanese invasion and occupation of China he wrote lyrics which called for the people to stand up and fight. Nei Er who was a famous composer who composed the music. The whole of China would sing this song.
(Listen to the song - direct link to www.china.org.cn/e-changshi/china.mp3)
This song has been an inspiration to the Chinese people since that time.
Tian Han was born in a poor farm family, but he studied very hard. He was very versatile. In 1912, he studied at the Changsha training school. In 1916 he went to Japan to study in Tokyo. In 1919 he studied architecture where he got to knowLi Dazhao who was a revolutionist. It was around this time that he started to write poetry. In 1920 he wrote two plays. In 1921, along with the famous Chinese writers Guo Moruo and Cheng Fangw organised a famous writers group. In 1922 he returned from Japan. On his return to China he worked in many different places. He taught at the Changsha first training school, at Shanghai university and at Fudan university.
From 1920-1929, Han Tian wrote the several plays. They helped to lay the foundation for modern drama in China. He managed to take the essence of Chinese drama and combine it with western drama to create a new form of drama uniquely suited for China. It is now regarded as great literature.
From 1929 Tian Han started to pay attention to politics. In March 1930 he joined with Lu Xu and many other writers to join the Chinese left wing writers’ alliance. 1932 he joined Chinese Communist Party. During that time he wrote a lot of drama and many film scripts. In them he called on the Chinese people to join together to make a new China.
When Japanese invaded China, he wrote a drama titled ‘Lu Guo Bridge’, ( The Japanese had crossed over the Lu Guo bridge to occupy Beijing). He, along with all the play actors performed the play to the Chinese army.
When Mao made the New China, Han Tian became drama Director General. He worked tirelessly and continued his work building a new approach to Chinese drama. Then in 1964, Zhang Cunqiao and Kang Sheng, vice-premiers of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, accused Tian Han of opposing the Chinese Communist Party. They put Tian Han into the prison and asked him to agree with the accusations. Tian Han refused. He stayed in prison until his death on the 10/12/1968, he was 70 year old.
During the Cultural Revolution Tian Han was criticized as a “poisonous weed” and through the 1960s and 1970s, while the tune could still be played, the lyrics of “March of the Volunteers” were banned. After the Cultural Revolution the lyrics where changed to: “We will for generations/Raise high Mao Zedong’s banner/March on!”
These new lyrics where sung from 1978 to 1982 when the original lyrics where re-instated.
In 1996 the Chinese Government commemorated Tian Han by setting up a foundation in his name.
The Chinese National Anthem. 中華人民共和国国歌
'jiang gu shi'
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