"Rise, people who don't want to be slaves..." A thick bass sounded, as if the singer were right next to his ear. However, the images of dusk and flashing white dots indicate that the sound comes from a distant time.
When she got the video, which was recorded on the record, Kristina Grigoryan, a Turkmen girl, was very excited. With the support of the 2021 "See China • Foreign Youth Image Project • Shanghai Tour" project, Chrissy took a video camera and began a journey of exploration to find the past of China's national anthem.
On the eve of the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the animated short film "Song of New China" directed by Chrissy caught fire. After more than 80 years, the "March of the Volunteer Army" and the story of its birth have once again been introduced to the world.
<h3>"This song is called 'Get Up.'"</h3>
It was a night in the summer of 1940, at the Roizon Open Air Music Plaza in New York, USA, and the audience of six or seven thousand people was eagerly awaiting.
"Tonight, I'm going to sing a Chinese song dedicated to the Chinese people who are fighting, and this song is called 'Get Up'!" The famous American black singer Paul Robeson first sang "The March of the Volunteers" with a Chinese.
The audience applauded thunderously, and the audience asked him to sing again. So Robertson sang the March of the Volunteers again in English. After the show, the crowd hummed "Go ahead!" advance! Moving forward! "While walking home.
After that night, the March of the Volunteers began to be sung among progressives in the United States. In 1941, the English version of the Volunteer March, renamed "Rise Up", began to be released in New York and other places.
During a casual visit to the museum, Odet Abadia, a foreign instructor at the "See China Foreign Youth Video Project," saw a video of a Concert in New York recorded in 1940.
Audrey has lived in China for nearly a decade, and this is the second time she has participated in the "See China" campaign. She immediately recommended this "national anthem past" to Tian Hongmin and Chrissy, students at the School of Journalism and Communication of Shanghai University.
Originally from Turkmenistan and a second-year student at the School of Journalism and Communication at Shanghai University, Chrissy is lively and cheerful, and enjoys photographing, traveling, and exploring cultural attractions across China. At that time, Chrissy and Tian Hongmin, a transnational student sister, were excited and uneasy about shooting a video work of the centenary of the founding of the party.
"The topic is so grand that we don't know how to present such a well-known story as the 'national anthem.'" In order to better shoot "Song of New China", Chrissy and Tian Hongmin visited Nie Er's former residence, Nie Er Music Square, Baidai Xiaolou, Tian Han Square and the National Anthem Museum to restore the lost years with video cameras.
The filming scene of the animated short film "Song of New China"
They also collected more than 100,000 words of written information and restored thousands of old pictures. In the end, they decided to create the short film "Song of New China" in such a flexible and interesting way as stop-motion animation.
From the "9.18" incident and the "July 7 Incident" to the establishment of the World Anti-Fascist Alliance, "Song of New China" not only tells the historical past of the birth of the Chinese national anthem, but also vividly restores the story of the "March of the Volunteer Army" from China to the world.
<h3>"A bond connecting free people"</h3>
"During the filming process, I gained a fuller understanding of China's history. For a foreigner, I'm 'half' a historian. Chrissy says that music is sung by language but can cross languages, races and borders.
After receiving the clue from paul Robertson's performance of the Volunteer March by her instructor, Audrey Avadere, Chrissy and Tian Hongmin set their sights on the other side of the ocean.
It was the summer of 1940, when Liu Liangmo, a 31-year-old patriotic musician, went to the United States to publicize the War of Resistance. In New York, he met Paul Robertson, known as the "King of the World Singers.".
"We, the negroes and the Chinese, are equally oppressed peoples, and we salute the Chinese people who resolutely resisted Japan. I'm going to learn a few Chinese songs; I'm going to sing Chinese folk songs to people all over America and the world. Robertson asked Liu Liangmo about the state of China's War of Resistance.
In July 1937, after Japanese militarism launched an all-out war of aggression against China, Paul Robertson, who was far away on the other side of the ocean, watched the situation in China and openly denounced Japan's war of aggression against China at various rallies.
After meeting Liu Liangmo, Robertson began to learn to sing Chinese songs word by word with him, including the "March of the Volunteer Army", which was widely sung in China at that time.
In December 1941, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States officially declared war on Japan, strengthening the world's anti-fascist camp. The "Overseas Chinese Youth Singing Team" organized by Robertson and Liu Liangmo introduced the Chinese people in various forms such as singing and speeches in the arduous War of Resistance Against Japan. In the same year, Robertson's "March of the Volunteer Army" and many other Chinese anti-war songs were recorded and published.
This set of 3 records contains 6 Chinese songs such as "Fengyang Flower Drum", "Great Road Song" and "Go to the Enemy's Rear", and the album cover is based on the brick pattern of the Great Wall, which prints the images of Chinese soldiers and children during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. This set of records was uniformly named "Up", and the subtitle was In English, which means "Song of New China".
In 1941, the record "Up" was released in the United States
After 80 years, the English subtitle of this set of records was named by Chrissy and Tian Hongmin for the newly produced animated short film to commemorate the glory days of the World Anti-Fascist League".
From factory workshops, restaurants and bars to field farms, Chinese anti-war songs such as "March of the Volunteer Army" began to be widely sung in the United States.
"China has found a source of strength against the enemy in the new mass singing movement." Song Qingling wrote on the title page of the record, "I am glad to learn that Paul Robertson has covered some of the best songs to the Americans, which is the voice of all the people of our country... May our old folk songs and new songs, which blend eastern and western musical forms, become another bond connecting free peoples. ”
Paul Robertson and others donated part of the proceeds from the release of the record to the "League for the Defense of China" chaired by Soong Ching Ling to support the Chinese War of Resistance.
<h3>The historical regret behind "paper short love long"</h3>
"I always thought it was a perfect story." AudreY Avador, the foreign instructor of the "See China Foreign Youth Video Project", said in surprise, "Many Chinese friends around me don't understand it. ”
When filming "The Song of New China", Chrissy and her Chinese partner Tian Hongmin also hated the "short love of paper" - limited by the length of the documentary and other factors, failing to tell the story of Paul Robertson and the Chinese national anthem in its entirety.
However, with the popularity of the animated short film "Song of New China" at home and abroad, Chinese and foreign youth have begun to explore the past of the national anthem hand in hand, and jointly trace the glorious years of life and death: Nie Er, Tian Han, Paul Robertson, etc. have become hot words on major Internet platforms.
Robertson's father was a slave smuggler from Nigeria to a plantation in the Southern United States. During the Civil War, Robertson the Elder escaped from slave plantations, took part in the Civil War, entered college and became a priest after graduation.
Paul Robertson
Racism has always been lingering in American history. As a teenager, Robertson paid Columbia University tuition and earned a law degree in 1923 on income from professional ball games and theatrical singing, but due to strong racial segregation, Robertson was unable to pursue his ambitions in the legal profession and continued to make a living performing in theater.
Robertson devoted his life to the cause of opposing fascism and pursuing equal rights for minorities. He was awarded the Medal by the NAACP and the Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.
Robertson spared no effort to support China's War of Resistance and had a deeper emotional relationship with China. When New China was founded in 1949, he immediately telephoned Chairman Mao Zedong, "We congratulate the birth of the People's Republic of China, because it is a great force for world peace and human freedom." ”
"Go ahead! advance! （March On! March On)", after sending the telegram, Robertson happily sang the "March of the Volunteers" on the street with his friends and began to prepare for his trip to China.
But McCarthyism was rampant, and in 1950 he was stripped of his passport to go abroad, and he was banned from the major theaters in the United States, and Robertson gradually disappeared into the public space until his unfortunate death in January 1976.
Robertson never set foot on Chinese soil in his lifetime, but he always looked forward to his trip to China. In April 1958, Robertson wrote in A Letter to the Chinese, "I look forward to the day when I can come to your land to pay my respects to you, and I hope that this day will come soon." ”
<h3>The power to penetrate time</h3>
"Robertson's story deserves to be remembered by the world." After making the decision to shoot "Song of New China", Chrissy also felt extremely challenging, "The film involves the history of the national anthem, it is difficult to shoot on the spot, and even the video materials are very small, more images and words." ”
After consulting with the instructor Auday and producer Tian Hongmin, Chrissy decided to present "Song of New China" in the form of an animated short film, and changed the narrative perspective, shifting the camera from Nie Er, Tian Han to Liu Liangmo, Paul and others, thus highlighting the international influence of "The March of the Volunteer Army".
Cropping, focusing, shooting, and inspecting, Chrissy led the film crew to use a large number of photos and animation patterns to make the historical data move frame by frame.
At the screening ceremony on September 26, 2021, the finale of "New China's Song" appeared, and Chrissy and Tian Hongmin were nervous, nervous and happy. They worry that while stop-motion animation can bring a rich visual experience, it also adds uncertainty.
Poster of the animated short film "Song of New China"
"If there's a problem with the player, the screen may get stuck." Producer Tian Hongmin even worried about technical glitches in the player.
At the premiere, "Song of New China" won praise from industry experts. Zhu Xinmei, deputy director of the International Institute of Development Research of the State Administration of Radio and Television, pointed out that by excavating a story of the international dissemination of the Chinese national anthem, this short film shows the friendly exchanges between The People of China and the United States during World War II, which will play a positive role in promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
"Music and picture, history and reality, freshness and heaviness, intertwined into a stirring melody." As a member of the organizing committee of the "Look at China Foreign Youth Film Project" and the executive dean of the Vancouver Film Academy in Shanghai, Jiang Weimin believes that the whole film of "Song of New China" reconstructs the static literature in the unique presentation of stop-motion animation technology, reproducing the different singing versions of this famous song in the movie of that year, in the land of China, and after it was circulated to the United States.
The novel and lively form has also attracted the attention of the majority of young netizens at home and abroad. Li Zheng, a doctor at the School of Journalism of Chinese Min University, believes that the short film "Song of New China" has been widely disseminated on the Internet, which can also allow more young people to understand the spiritual power behind the Chinese national anthem. Canadian netizen Andrew said that the short film provides foreign audiences with a new perspective on Chinese history in a creative way, which is both interesting and vivid.
On the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Song of New China" will be officially released by the Institute of Chinese Culture and International Communication of Beijing Normal University, the China Foreign Book Publishing and Distribution Center (International Communication Development Center), the Shanghai Vancouver Film Academy of Shanghai University, the School of Journalism and Communication of Shanghai University, and Shenzhen Yawen Education culture and Media Co., Ltd.
Southern Weekend reporter Yu Dong