March 4, 2009
News about this year’s “Two Sessions”, which started yesterday, dominates today’s front page.
Several newspapers have featured the same cover image: a line of NPC representatives singing the national anthem. The photo was captioned by Chongqing Times using a line from the anthem’s lyrics: “Charge forward! Charge forward! Forward!”
There is now an NPC rule that all representatives must sing aloud instead of just standing still when the national anthem is played. This rule was proposed by representative Li Suhua, who submitted this suggestion to the National People’s Congress for three consecutive years before it was finally passed.
Most of the representatives say that the singing part does have a morale boosting effect. CCTV’s talk show host Cui Yongyuan, who is also a NPC representative told the Beijing Times that when he was singing “rise up, you people who don’t want to be slaves”, he had a deep feeling of the power in the anthem. “We held together and successfully hosted the Olympic Games after going through so much last year. All Chinese people should be proud of themselves.” said Cui.
- Beijing Times (Chinese): Sing the anthem aloud at the “two sessions”