In Hong Kong, there is this “May Glory Be To Hong Kong” that advocates love, and also this “The March Of The Volunteers”, stipulated by law as the national anthem, which advocates hatred towards enemies. Love and hatred are actually two sides of the same coin. When the national anthem is rendered, according to the “National Anthem Law”, people shall stand up straight gravely from the bottom of their hearts. It will be a total disappointment to the composer if only the formalities are stressed with people chanting the lyrics like zombies without knowing its import.

The lyrics of the national anthem of the People's Republic of China(PRC) are simple:

Arise, Ye who refuse to be slaves.
With our very flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall!
China’s masses have met the day of danger,
Indignation fills the heart of all of our countrymen.
Arise! Arise! Arise! Many hearts with one mind,
Brave the enemy’s gunfire, march on!
Brave the enemy’s gunfire, march on!
March on! March on! On!
(Editorial note: This was translated by Li Bao-chen during the Second Sino-Japanese War.)

“Arise” is repeated throughout, which is of unequivocal import that it is aimed at wakening the nationals fast asleep, or pretending to be so, from the Chinese dream. What is such a state of life when one is being fast asleep or in a dream, or pretending to be so? The following line, “ye who refuse to be slaves”, illustrates that it is a state of slavery. The gist of the song is summarized in the first line of the verse that is aimed at wakening the nationals from slavery!

Though the War of Resistance Against Japan(1937-1945) helped coin the term slavery, it should not only refer to the conquered people, but also, in view of the history of 2,000 year autocracy, Chinese slaves under the authoritarian regimes.

What is slavery? Zou Rong, a revolutionary martyr who had died in prison at the age of 20 before the Revolution of 1911, said in his book “The Revolutionary Army”: “Slaves are not self-governed nor willing to be unfettered …repeating the words of others, being at their master’s service, with no cerebration apart from being dependent , no characters on top of being subservient, no witticism except blandishments, no career in addition to running errands, …we Chinese are skilled in what slaves are apt at…Alas! How misfortunate a person is to be a slave!” The history of Chinese slavery is long. Lu Xun said: “Until now, Chinese have never won over the attributes of a human being, but slavery at best, and yet the status below slavery has been seen frequently.” In China, the difference between “peaceful and prosperous times” and “troubled times” is that the former “guarantee temporary slavery” while the latter ”let down those aspired to slavery”.

“Arise, Ye who refuse to be slaves. With our very flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall!” means that in the face of the ruler’s armed force, we can only fight bare-handed.

“China’s masses have met the day of danger” and “ye who refuse to be slaves” both are not in past but present tense alike. In 2009, Chinese playwright Sha Ye-xin put this line up as the title for his prose of 2,000 words to portray the corruption in China. After 11 years, not only is the corruption worsening, but the despotism is also becoming more rigorous. There is not “the day of danger””, but only “the day of more danger”. And this “day of danger” has stretched to Hong Kong. Luckily, the servility of Hong Kong people, who had lived as freemen under the British colonial rule for more than 150 years, had been washed clean. Then, In the border area of China, with our freedom being suppressed, our “indignation fills the hearts” and we “brave the enemy’s gunfire, march on”. Who are the enemies? They are the ones who are going to strip us of our freedom and force us to be slavish. The enemies also comprise those who used to be slaves, but are now indulging in being so, and therefore promoted to salve foremen that are never to be recovered..

“The March Of The Volunteers” was meant to be a song of protest as it still is now. We shall not chant the lyrics mechanically as what the slaves do, but grasp the import of every line of it, and sing it out with anti-slavery aspiration. Arise, Ye who refuse to be slaves.


(Lee Yee, a prominent political commentator in Hong Kong who embarked on a career of writing and subediting in 1956, has been contributing unremittingly political commentaries to the local press.)

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