To Sing or not to Sing: Understanding Hong Kong's Anthem Law Controversy through a reception history of the March of the Volunteers in Hong Kong in the 1930s-1950s

Abstract

While the concept of unisonance was made famous by Benedict Anderson in his classic text, Imagined Community (1983), Philip Bohlman (2011) takes the concept further, applying it to the Eurovision Song Contest on the making of the New Europe. Through unisonance, people in an imagined community are connected through imagined sound. In 2017, Hong Kong is undergoing a debate over the National Anthem Law. The Chinese National Anthem was a movie theme song in the 1930s before it became the National Anthem. This research aims to outline the social implications of the debate over the Anthem Law, by digging into the historical root of choral music in Hong Kong between 1930s – 1950s, drawing on ethnographic and archival research, with interviews, photography and newspaper clippings. The period between the 1930s-50s is an important period for the first formation of cultural identity for people living in Hong Kong. Firstly, the Second World War and Chinese Civil War triggered cultural activities such as fundraising concerts. For instance, through “Patriotic Songs Campaign” over four hundred people performed March of the Volunteers for over three thousand audiences at Hong Kong Youth Association Outdoor Stadium on June 14, 1936. This song later became the National Anthem of the People’s Republic of China. Concerts and choirs of similar kinds were set up under the shadow of wars and the commitment to “New China”. Secondly, the British government and western businessmen were major donors of choral activities, which further encouraged cultural exchanges among the locals and westerners. Major western classical choral works like Haydn’s The Creation and Mendelssohn’s Elijah were performed in this period. I argue, the confluence of colonialism and nationalism through choral music helped formulate Hong Kong identity. While the two body of choral repertoires are still actively sung by choral lovers nowadays, a survey on choral activities in Hong Kong in the 1930s -50s would contribute to one’s understanding of the social dynamics and tensions today, particularly in the context of March of the Volunteers, once a popular piece in Hong Kong and now a piece full of controversy surrounding the Anthem law on the same piece of land.