March of the Volunteers

义勇军进行曲
義勇軍進行曲
English: March of the Volunteers
Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ

National anthem of the People's Republic of China Including two SARs of Hong Kong SAR Macau SAR
Lyrics	Tian Han, 1934
Music	Nie Er, 1935
Adopted	27 September 1949 (Provisional) 4 December 1982 (Official) 1 July 1997 (Hong Kong) 20 December 1999 (Macau) 14 March 2004 (Constitutional)

Music sample
March of the Volunteers

Literal meaning

National Anthem of the People's Republic of China

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Guógē

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Guógē

The "March of the Volunteers", is the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, including its special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Unlike most previous Chinese anthems, it is written entirely in the vernacular, rather than in Classical Chinese.

Its lyrics were composed as a dramatic poem by the poet and playwright, the Japan-educated Tian Han in 1934 and set to music by Nie Er the next year in Japan for the movie Children of Troubled Times. It was adopted as the PRC's provisional anthem in 1949 in place of the Republican "Three Principles of the People" and the Communist "Internationale". When Tian Han was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, the march was briefly and unofficially replaced by "The East Is Red", then played without words, then played with altered words. Restored to its original version, the "March of the Volunteers" was raised to official status in 1982, adopted by Hong Kong and Macau upon their restorations to China in 1997 and 1999 respectively, and included in the Chinese Constitution's Article 136 in 2004.