March of The Volunteers - Origins As National Anthem

Origins As National Anthem

March of the Volunteers was composed by Nie Er to a text by Tian Han in 1934. Popular stories suggest, however, that Tian wrote it on a tobacco paper after being arrested in Shanghai and thrown into a Kuomintang (KMT) jail in 1935. The song was featured as the theme song of the 1935 patriotic film Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm, also known as "Children of the Storm," a story about an intellectual who leaves to fight in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The song was later used in Frank Capra's propaganda film, The Battle of China. It was one of many songs that were promoted secretly among the population as part of the anti-Japanese resistance during the "left-wing cinema movement" (1931–37). The song was released as an album by the Pathé label of EMI in 1935.

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 Beijing had recently come under the control of the Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War. There was controversy over the line "The Chinese people faces their greatest peril". Historian Guo Moruo changed the line to "The Chinese people have come to their moment of emancipation" (中國民族到了大翻身的時候).

In June, a committee was set up by the Communist Party of China to decide on an official national anthem for the soon-to-be declared People's Republic of China. By the end of August, the committee had received 6,926 submissions. March of the Volunteers was suggested by painter Xu Beihong and almost unanimously supported by the members of the committee. There was contention, however, over the issue of the third line. On this Zhou Enlai made the conclusive judgment: "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, just days before the founding of the People's Republic of China.