I had to listen to this
every day when I was attending a local
school in
Shanghai. It drives you sick after a while. It was written during the
Civil War against the
Kuomintang by a bunch of
peasants. It is basically a
war march, done at a fairly quick pace. Not as
solemn as the
Russian one, but you can add just as much patriotic rhetoric to it (as seen in the 1960's with the
Red Guards). Actually not a bad
ditty. I find the
American one rather plain. Who is that
Jose anyways?
Here's the lyrics in Chinese and my translation. I think the title is "Arise!", but I'm not sure. Nobody refers to it by name any more, only as "the anthem".
Qilai!
Buyuanzuo nulide renmen!
Bawomende xierou, zhucheng women xinde changcheng!
Zhonghua minzu daole zuiweixiande shihou,
meigeren beipozhe fachu zuihoude housheng.
Qilai!
Qilai!
Qilai!
Women wanzhongyixing,
maozhe dirende paohuo qianjin!
Maozhe dirende paohuo qianjin!
Qianjin!
Qianjin!
Jin!
Arise!
Ye who refuse to be slaves;
With our very flesh and blood
Let us build our new Great Wall!
The people of China are at their most critical hour,
Everybody must roar their defiance.
Arise!
Arise!
Arise!
Millions of hearts with one cause,
Brave the enemy's gunfire,
March on! Brave the enemy's gunfire,
March on! March on!
March on, on!
Fiery heh? The Taiwanese used to make fun of it because the term for "on" in "march on" sounds suspiciously like the word for sex. But then again, the Taiwanese anthem is completely bland.