|
|
Please wait for the 3.4mb MP3 file to load...
Click the victrola to play the recording.
Click Here to listen to the spoken pronunciation of the words.
Click Here to to play the full version with the composer singing.
Click here to watch a video of Class 5B of Shenzhen's China-UK College performing the song in English. (100MG .WAV file)
Note that the words do not say "where we were born and we will die," but say "where we live and we will die." I wanted to be sure that the people the song is about includes me.
China has shown that it is possible for an appointed republic to behave more like a democracy than a democratic republic. There is more religious freedom here than in the U.S. If you don't believe that, try to get a job at a company in the States after disclosing you believe in something other than Jesus or God, or don't believe in anything at all. In China, Jews and Muslims live and work together in gentle Peace, knowing that they have common religious roots. If you think the Falun Gong was religious oppression, look at Waco and other cults. What did they have in common? Not just unique religious beliefs, but the overthrow of the authority of the government. The Communist Party has no problem with criticism of its policies; people speak out every day. It does however have a problem with people challenging the authority of the Party's rule. So what? The U.S. government has the same policy, and has exercised enforcement of that policy in places like the Black Panther headquarters in Philadelphia, Wounded Knee, Provo, Utah. No one seems to be ranting about the American government's approval and participation in the genocide of fifteen million Native Americans, but if you free up an entire region from the tyranny of a theocracy similar to what the American religious right would like to have, people cry out for human rights justice. The forbidden city of Lhasa was off limits to the peasants, because the rich did not want to be overburdened by the poor they created through huge taxation in the name of Buddha. Today's Tibetan population is economically better off than it was prior to the revolution, and happier too, including full opportunity to practice their varied religions and maintain their cultural heritages.
Dedicated to those whose lives were touched by the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake
此歌谨献给被2008四川地震感动的人们
Words and music by Don Rechtman
2008
|