Opinion: What’s in a song? For the people of Hong Kong, the idea of nationhood

Given the violence that Hong Kong has seen this summer, music-making would seem like a positive turn from the tear gas and truncheons. The international media has picked up on the story, no doubt happy to have something different to report. But if music seems like a mere momentary diversion from the real story, we’re missing the meaning and message that such anthems hold.

, it’s a hymn. Like those songs, it sounds best when sung in four-part harmony, but is rarely heard in that form. That has not prevented the song from catching on among protesters in a big way.are drawn from the chants heard on the streets this summer. The idea of freedom is central to each verse and to the refrain. The text may not be first-rate poetry, but that hasn’t prevented the pro-democracy crowd from embracing it. This success has come at a cost, however.

In an interview with the BBC, “Thomas” claimed that he wrote the song to reinvigorate the movement. In this, he has succeeded. In addition to being sung at political rallies,has been heard in the context we most often associate with national songs – a sporting event. At a World Cup qualifying match between Hong Kong and Iran on Sept.

References to the landscape that a nation occupies are central to national songs, and they have not been lacking in this summer’s turmoil. An often heard refrain of counter-protesters is that “Hong Kong belongs to China”.

Yesh how about not publishing Ezra Levant anymore mkay?

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