"The March of the Volunteers" (Simplified Chinese: 义勇军进行曲) 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 Tian Han[?] (田汉) with music composed by Nie Er[?] (聂耳). This composition is a musical march.
It was originally the theme song of the film Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm (风云儿女, 1935), a story about nameless heroes and heroines of 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 chosen to be the provisional national anthem on September 27, 1949, more than a month before the founding of the PRC. 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 popularly. On December 4, 1982, the National People's Congress resolved to restore the original 1935 version by Tian Han as the official national anthem. Signifantly the 1982 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.
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