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Top 10 Facts about Chinese National Anthem, The March of the Volunteer

The march of the volunteers was originally known as the march of the Anti-Manchukuo counter- Japan Volunteers has been the official national anthem of he People’s Republic of China.

In 1978, the national anthem was written in vernacular, Mandarin Chinese but not in the usual Classical Chinese.

This was after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria which saw a boom of nationalistic arts and literature in China.

The national anthem was first written by the commuist and play right Tian Han in 1934.  The melody was set by Nie Er. It was arranged by Aaron Avshalomovfor the communist-aligned film children of Troubled Times in 1935.

This song, became a common military song during the second Sino-Japanese War beyond the communist faction.

Of importance to note was the nationalist general Dai Anlan who designated it to be the anthem of the 200th Division. This is the troop that fought in Burma.

Therefore the song was adopted as the PRC’s provisional anthem in 1949 in the place of the “Three Principles of the People of the Republic of China.

After the death of Tian Han who died during the Cultural Revolution in 160s, the song was unofficially replaced with “The East Is Red”. Later, it was brought back but then it was played with lyrics.

This brought about the “March of the Volunteers”, which was raised to official status with changed lyrics according to the communist historiography.

This was composed during the Cultural Revolution hence the restoration of the original version in 1982.