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August 13, 2008


Conspicuous by His Absence

It’s worth noting that the “Hymn to the Motherland” sung (er, lip-synched) at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics was abbreviated, in part cutting out this key stanza:

东方太阳，正在升起，
The sun is rising in the East,
人民共和国正在成长；
The People’s Republic is growing up,
我们领袖毛泽东，
Our leader Mao Zedong,
指引着前进的方向。
Is guiding the way forward.
我们的生活天天向上，
Our life is getting better every day,
我们的前途万丈光芒。
Our future is forever bright.

This line was also not included:

谁敢侵犯我们就叫他死亡！
Who invades us will be killed!

If anyone can improve on my rough translation, please leave a comment and I’ll update the post later.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 10:49 pm (utc+8) and is filed under China.

No Responses to “Conspicuous by His Absence”

  1. " id="comment-11984"> speed said:
    August 13th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    He is absent and Who is conspicuous :)

  2. " id="comment-11985"> Nik said:
    August 14th, 2008 at 12:12 am

    Nice post. I checked the Chinese blogs, there were quite a few lines left out, “mao ze dong”, “kill the foreigners”, “independant freedom is our ideal” and “we endured years of hardship to obtain liberation”. This site compares the two versions.

    http://bbs.ly.shangdu.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=29&id=1683015

  3. " id="comment-11986"> DougM said:
    August 14th, 2008 at 2:25 am

    I’ve also heard (maybe on Marginal Revolution) that Mao is not on the new currency.

  4. " id="comment-11987"> drummania said:
    August 14th, 2008 at 2:46 am

    Actually I believe this song has been revised several times. I learned it in the 80’s and I don’t recall having the stanza “kill the invaders”.

  5. " id="comment-11988"> yo said:
    August 14th, 2008 at 4:54 am

    Sounds to me like a bunch of Neville Obama Chamberlains have taken over China.

  6. " id="comment-11989"> Hudson said:
    August 14th, 2008 at 7:00 am

    A major advantage of a one party state is to”adjust” the long revered national song(and modern history) from time to time.

  7. " id="comment-11990"> C. Maoxian said:
    August 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    @Nik: Thanks for the link.

    @DougM: There was a very small batch of 10 kuai bills issued for the Olympics which didn’t have Mao on them; doubt it’s the start of a trend. :)

    @Drum: Yes, it may well have been through multiple iterations given the political imperatives of the moment.

  8. " id="comment-11991"> wincity said:
    August 15th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    I grew up in China and I don’t remember the line about “killing the invaders”. Could be from a different song. Also I feel it might be better with “Our leader Mao Zedong, is showing us the way forward”. His highness probably didn’t have to “lead”.

  9. " id="comment-11992"> C. Maoxian said:
    August 15th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    wincity: Yes, the original lyrics have probably been modified at different times for different reasons. “指引” is usually translated as “guide” but I chose “lead” which is a bit redundant after “领袖” (leader) … how about “guiding our way forward” ? though your “showing us the way forward” is good too.

  10. " id="comment-11993"> wincity said:
    August 16th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    “Guiding” is better.

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