Red songs sweep China's happiest city*
13:17, April 20, 2011
Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality urged its citizens to learn to sing 36 revolutionary songs in order to greet the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to a notice issued by the Chongqing Municipal Information Department recently.
"Red songs," or revolutionary songs, refer to songs composed to recognize the CPC's leadership in the revolution and struggle to found the People's Republic of China.
In order to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, a solicitation and selection activity with the theme of "Singing over China: The masses' most beloved newly-created songs," jointly hosted by China Central Television, China National Radio, the Chinese Musicians Association and the Chinese National Academy of the Arts, started in July 2010.
A total of 36 songs have been selected out of the 18,132 entries and widely sung by the masses. In addition, ten of the 36 songs will be selected finally as the masses' most beloved newly-created songs in mid May.
The 36 red songs sing the praises of the Chinese Communist Party as well as the country and represent a happy life with various styles and fair-sounding melodies.
Chongqing, listed in the top ten of China's Happiest Cities 2010, actively guides citizens to sing these red songs by broadcasting them on Chongqing Television and releasing numbered music notes on municipal printed media from April 10 to May 20, which aims to enrich the spiritual and cultural needs of its citizens.
Moreover, Chongqing also asked all departments to promote the 36 red songs during all kinds of activities, such as red song singing competitions and all public performances. It also called on artists and music educational workers to go down to the grass-roots units and teach the public to sing these red songs so as to make every citizen be able to sing these songs and love these songs to raise a fever of singing red songs.
Actually, as early as June 30, 2008, Chongqing launched its red song campaign as a part of a momentous Red Culture Movement proposed by Bo Xilai, secretary of the Communist Party of China Chongqing Committee. At that time, the red songs swept through government agencies, institutions, enterprises, communities, schools, theaters and parks in this western Chinese municipality of 31 million people.
* Url:http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/7356152.html#
