Propaganda Songs

Starting in Junior High school, we learned quite a number of Propaganda songs. We repeated these songs during the years we had military class. Therefore we were familiar with them enough to sing them by heart, any time, any place. I will try to translate one of them here to give you a taste of what we went through when we were being conditioned by Chiang's government. The following song was well known in the fifties and was sung by every young student on the island. In Chinese it is:

打倒俄寇,反共產,反共產

消滅朱毛,殺漢奸,殺漢奸

收復大陸,解救同胞

服從領袖,完成革命

三民主義实行,中華民族復興

中華復興,民國萬歲,中華民國萬萬歲!
My simple translation is below:

Beat the Russian enemy, against communists, against communists!

Diminish Chu and Mao, kill the Han spies, kill the Han spies!

Recover our mainland, free our people.

Obey our leader, complete the revolution.

Practice Three People's principles, raise up our Chinese race!
Raise up our Chinese race, long live our republic, long live our republic of China!


This is enough for you to have a taste of the propaganda flavor we experienced in those years. It is reported that there were more than three hundred songs like this. I wonder if we could calculate how much we gained or lost during these school years because of the time and effort we devoted to that propaganda! There are many papers discussing these patriotic songs (see for example:http://www.jimlee.org.tw/doc/doc1.pdf). If you like to hear the song and a bit more taste of our experience, please check this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?=mo5jOYzk4ws&feature=related. There is another song on the web if you want more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ZbcFSsqmQ&feature=related