Xiàngqián, xiàngqián, xiàngqián!

The People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China is the biggest army of the planet, and one of the most powerful armies out there. As China continues to arise as World Power, their military keeps growing and making qualitative progress. The army has a rich story and interesting background. Here we will take a look at the most important song of the Chinese Army: The Military Anthem of the PLA.

Just like countries and institutions, armies usually have their own anthems. In some cases, the “anthem” is a representative patriotic song or a military march (and they can have more than one). In the case of the People’s Liberation Army, a song called “March of the Eighth Route Army” (“八路军进行曲”) was composed in 1939 by Zheng Lücheng (郑律成) and Gong Mu (公木) in honour of the 18th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army (国民革命军第十八集团军), which participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. The song become widely popular and years later, in 1965, it was renamed as “March of the PLA” (after some modifications to the lyrics under order of the People's Liberation Army General Political Department (中国人民解放军总政治部)). The song was finally oficialized as the “Military Anthem” of the PLA in 1988, when it was adopted with its current name: The “Military Anthem of the Chinese People's Liberation Army” (“中国人民解放军军歌”).

Many versions of this anthem have been made during the years and are available all over the internet. The song was even featured in the 1965 film “The East Is Red” (“东方红”), and it has also been interpreted by the Korean People's Army State Merited Chorus and Symphony Orchestra (조선인민군공훈국가합창단) in the Korean language.

During these years, many of them have been uploaded to YouTube. I have decided to select my favourite ones and add them to this list so you can hear them and enjoy this magnificent song.