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Chinese Name: 歌唱祖国
English Name: Ode to the Motherland
Composer: Wang Shen 王莘
“Ode to the Motherland” is a well-known song in China. It can be said that it is China’s second national anthem.
Composition Background of Ode to the Motherland
Composer Wang Shen is the creator behind the song. Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province in 1918, he loved music and learned to play folk music since childhood. Later, he took part in the Anti-Japanese and national salvation singing movement led by Xian Xinghai and Lv Ji, and then entered the Lu Xun Institute of literature and art to learn music from them. After graduation, Wang Shen served as the teaching work of the Music Department of North China United University and the leadership of the mass drama society and created many revolutionary songs.
After attending the founding ceremony of new China in 1949, Wang Shen was very excited. At that time, he hoped to create a song to express people’s love and deep feelings for new China. In the next year or so, Wang Shen created many works, but he was not particularly satisfied.
One day in September 1950, Wang Shen went to Beijing to buy musical instruments for the newly established wind band of Tianjin literary and Art Troupe. When he went to the station and returned to Tianjin, he happened to pass in front of Tiananmen Square again. At that time, the national flag was flying high, and the people warmly rehearsed the National Day parade. Wang Shen was immediately moved by the scene in front of him. A few words of lyrics and melodies suddenly jumped into my mind: the five-star red flag fluttered in the wind, and how loud the victory song was.
Because he had a musical instrument in his hand at that time, he could not record it. He had to sing along the road, enter the station, buy tickets and get on the bus. Only in the carriage did he find out the cigarette box and record the words in his mind. Wang Shen looked at the mountains and rivers outside the window all the way and thought about the life course of himself and the people around him. The initial words and tunes of singing the motherland were completed in this journey.
