Chinese Diaspora. Today, the Great Wall Ballad is one of the most popular Chinese patriotic songs in both Taiwan and Mainland China, largely due to its apolitical lyrics and folk-style melody. The song has been adapted numerous times across its history, and is sometimes seen as the de facto
anthem of the Chinese diaspora.
History
The Great Wall Ballad was written to appear as a musical number in the 1937 Huayi Film Company production Kanshan Wanli.[
Northern China, one of the lead producers of the film, Lu Xuebiao, published the script and music of Kanshan Wanli in Warsong Magazine, a popular Chinese resistance publication. The Great Wall Ballad became a popular melody among the readers, and it was disseminated by a large number of anti-Japanese propagandists across China. As the war progressed, the song became increasingly well known, and was performed internationally by Zhou Xiaoyian, an acclaimed Chinese choral singer, alongside the remainder of the soundtrack to Kanshan Wanli.[citation needed
] These international performances made the Great Wall Ballad a favourite among the Chinese diaspora, and it remains a well-known piece among diaspora communities globally.
In 1957, Liu Xue'an was denounced by the Chinese Communist Party as a rightist,[citation needed] and his works, including the Great Wall Ballad, were banned for 22 years. During this period, the song continued to increase in popularity in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and by the time that ban was lifted in 1979, it had become well-established across the Sinosphere. The song remains popular in both Mainland China and Taiwan to this day, and was featured during the Chinese bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.[1]
Ten thousandli is the Great Wall long,
Behind the Great Wall is my hometown .
The sorghum was rich and the soybeans fragrant,
Gold was all over the land, with no disasters.
Since the great catastrophe began,
The rape and looting was too bitter to endure
Hardship drove us to foreign lands
Fragmented, our kinfolk and parents died.
I shall never forget the avengement and enmity
I just want to go back to my hometown day and night.
We must all fight to protect our homeland
No matter how the Japanese enemy shows their tyranny
Ten thousand li is the Great Wall long,
Behind the Great Wall is my hometown .
400 million compatriots share one heart.
The new Great Wall is ten thousand li long.
Ten thousand li is the Great Wall long,
Behind the Great Wall is my hometown .
400 million compatriots share one heart.
The new Great Wall is ten thousand li long.