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"National Anthem of the Republic of China" is the current national anthem of the Republic of China (ROC).[Note 1] It discusses how the vision and hopes of a new nation and its people can and should be achieved and maintained using the Three Principles of the People.[Note 2]
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The text of "National Anthem of the Republic of China" was the collaboration between several Kuomintang (KMT) members,
The text debuted on July 16, 1924 as the opening of a speech by Sun Yat-sen at the opening ceremony of the Whampoa Military Academy.
After the success of the Northern Expedition, the Kuomintang chose the text to be its party anthem and publicly solicited for accompanying music. Ch'eng Mao-yün (程懋筠; Chéng Màoyún) won in a contest of 139 participants.
On March 24, 1930, numerous Kuomintang members proposed to use the speech by Sun as the lyrics to the national anthem. Due to opposition over using a symbol of a political party to represent the entire nation, the National Anthem Editing and Research Committee (國歌編製研究委員會) was set up, which endorsed the KMT party song. On June 3, 1937, the Central Standing Committee (中央常務委員會) approved the proposal, and in 1943, the song officially became the national anthem of the Republic of China.
| Traditional Chinese characters |
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三民主義，吾黨所宗； |
| Zhuyin Fuhao | Wade-Giles | Hanyu Pinyin | Xiao'erjing |
|---|---|---|---|
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ㄙㄢ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄓㄨˇ ㄧˋ， ㄨˊ ㄉㄤˇ ㄙㄨㄛˇ ㄗㄨㄥ； |
San-min-chu-yi, Wu-tang so tsung; |
Sānmínzhǔyì, wúdǎng suǒ zōng; |
صً مٍ ﺟُﻮْ ىِ , ءُ دْا ﺻُﻮَع ذْﻮ |
The lyrics are in classical literary Chinese. For example,
In this respect, the national anthem of the Republic of China stands in contrast to the People's Republic of China's "The March of the Volunteers", which was written a few years later entirely in modern vernacular Chinese.
As well as being written in classical Chinese, the national anthem follows classical poetic conventions. The style follows that of a four-character poem (四言詩), also called a four-character rhymed prose (四言韻文), first appeared in the Zhou Dynasty. The last character of each line rhymes in -ong or -eng, which are equivalent in ancient Chinese. Because of the concise and compact nature of poetry, some words in the text have different interpretations, evident in the two translations below.
The official version, translated by Tu Ting-yi is used when the anthem lyrics are described in foreign-language guides to the ROC published by the government.
OfficialSan Min Chu-i, |
LiteralThree Principles of the People, |
Lines seven and eight of the Tu and literal translations seem to vary dramatically, but the Tu translation is actually just in inverse order, probably to suit a more natural English word order. The words "day" and "night" are replaced by the metonyms "sun" and "star". Also, classical Chinese poetry allows for a great amount of license in interpretation.
The real differences are caused by the official interpretations, where some political and martial words have had their other connotations emphasized:
Such is taught in ROC schools, but some consider the elaboration of those phrases to be an inconsistent and unfaithful interpretation of the original.
The "great unity" (大同) has been interpreted to mean "total world harmony" (世界大同) and is a Confucian term used in the Great Learning as the ultimate aim that humans should strive for. However, the term was also occasionally used in the nineteenth century as a translation of the term "socialism" (the term for "Communism" 共産 was actually a Japanese word, and some scholars feel the more correct Chinese term for the translation should be 大同). Sun Yat-sen's philosophy was that by providing for a strong China which could relate to the world as an equal, world harmony could be achieved.
It is generally heard on important occasions such as graduations and flag-raising ceremonies. But for many years it was played before all movie performances. The song was once used to identify illegal migrants to Taiwan from mainland Fujian as they would not be able to sing the anthem. Reportedly this is no longer effective, since migrants to Taiwan now learn the song before crossing the straits.
Because it was originally the party song of Kuomintang (KMT) and was drafted in Mainland China as the speech to Whampoa Military Academy (a military school founded by KMT), those strongly supporting Taiwan independence have objected to its use as the national anthem. To them, the phrase "our party" (吾黨) is taken to refer to the KMT. The moderate interpretation interprets "our party" (吾黨) to have the more general meaning as "we", as its original meaning in Chinese before the existence of political parties, where the word refers to a group people linked together by similar ideologies or common benefits.
The Democratic Progressive Party has accepted the current national anthem of the Republic of China but often plays it in a strongly Taiwanese context such as having it sung by a choir of Taiwanese aboriginals or in Taiwanese (Min Nan) or Hakka.
The song is banned in mainland China and although not formally banned in Hong Kong and Macau, its public performance there is rare. At Chen Shui-bian's inauguration in 2000, the national anthem was sung by popular Taiwanese singer A-Mei, which led to her being banned from touring in mainland China for a few months.
At international events such as Olympic Games when the ROC is not allowed to use its official name, it uses the name “Chinese Taipei” instead. Furthermore, the National Banner Song is played in place of the National Anthem of the Republic of China due to pressure from the People's Republic of China over the political status of Taiwan.
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