PROPAGANDA PIECE:National Chengchi University’s anthem, written in the 1940s by a Chinese Nationalist Party member, has survived nine attempts to abolish it
Taipei Times
Date: Dec 06, 2015
By: Wu Po-hsuan and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
National Chengchi University students yesterday boycotted the university’s controversial
Chengchi University students attending a protest at the school yesterday to demand that the school anthem be abandoned because it contains the words “my party” and “revolution,” which they say are outdated. Photo provided by Lin Pei-yu
school anthem at the university’s Culture Cup choir competition, in which the school anthem is a required song.
The school anthem’s lyrics, panned by critics as a propaganda piece for “party-state ideology,” was written in the 1940s by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Chen Kuo-fu (陳國府) and contains passages such as: “Implementing the Three Principles of the People is our party’s mission,” and “Building the Republic of China is our party’s responsibility.”
At least four departmental choirs boycotted the school anthem by singing a vowel in lieu of certain lyrics, or by not singing at all. One department’s choir omitted the word “party” from its rendition of the anthem.
Several choirs held banners bearing the slogan, “Hey, give us back the school anthem we made,” referring to an alternative anthem that the university’s administration rejected. [FULL STORY]
