How songs are empowering Hong Kong’s protesters in their fight to be heard
- Music has long been a part of protests worldwide and both sides are using it to get their messages across
- Glory to Hong Kong is de facto anthem of city’s protest movement, but Do You Hear the People Sing? is also popular
Hundreds of students and staff of Po Leung Kuk Celine Ho Yam Tong College, a top secondary school in Wong Tai Sin in East Kowloon, were gathered solemnly in the hall as the Chinese national anthem began playing.
After the familiar trumpet introduction of March of the Volunteers, everyone should have started singing the first line: “Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves.”
Instead, the anthem was drowned out when most of the students began singing: “Do you hear the people sing/Singing the song of angry men/It is the music of the people who will not be slaves again.”
For the entire duration that the anthem played over the loudspeakers, they repeated the chorus of the revolutionary song from the musical version of Victor Hugo’s classic, Les Misérables.
The teachers on stage did not stop the students. But addressing the school a few minutes later, principal Lam Siu-kuen urged them to seek common ground amid their political differences, and maintain harmony in the school.
A video of the ceremony marking the start of the new school year quickly went viral online, with many internet users praising the students for their courage, and the teachers for being open-minded and not interrupting their protest.
