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Simplified Chinese: 义勇军进行曲, pinyin: Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ) is the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, written in the midst of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) by the noted poet and playwright Tian Han (田汉) with music composed by Nie Er (聂耳). This composition is a musical march.
March of the Volunteers was written by Tian Han in 1934 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 jail in 1935. The song, with a minor alteration, became the theme song of the patriotic film Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm (风云儿女, 1935), 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.
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 Beiping (now Beijing) had recently come into the control of the Chinese Communists. 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" (中国民族到了大翻身的时候).
In June a committee was set up by the Chinese Communist Party to decide on an official national anthem. By the end of August the committee had received 6926 submissions. March of the Volunteers was suggested by painter Xu Peihong (徐悲鸿) and almost unaminously supported by the members of the committee. Over the issue over the third line, however, there was still contention. 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, more than a month before the founding of the People's Republic of China.
During the Cultural Revolution, Tian Han was swept from power and as a result there was a period of time when The East is Red was used as the unofficial national anthem.
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. On December 4, 1982, the National People's Congress resolved to restore the original 1935 version by Tian Han as the official national anthem. Significantly 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 asendancy of Deng Xiaoping.
Although even popular among Nationalists during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the song was banned in Taiwan until the 1990s.
The anthem is written completely in Vernacular Chinese, while the Republic of China's "Three Principles of the People" is Classical Chinese.
Click to listen:
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前进！各民族英雄的人民！ |
Qiánjìn! Gè mínzǔ yīngxióngde rénmín, |
March on! People of all heroic nationalities! |
See also: Historical Chinese anthems
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