The East is Red and its lyrics went through many variations,
beginning as a peasant love song, then becoming a call to arms in the
Anti-Japanese War and, later, a paean extolling Chairman Mao as the savior
of the Chinese people. (Read more about The East is Red on the
tsquare.tv website
for the Long Bow film, The Gate of Heavenly Peace.)
Written in the early 1940s, "The East is Red" started out as an old folk
song popular among the farmers of Shanxi, near the wartime Communist
base at Yan'an. It originally went:
Sesame oil, cabbage hearts,
Wanna eat string beans, break off the tips,
Get really lovesick if I don't see you for 3 days
Hu-er-hai-yo,
Oh dear, Third Brother mine.
In 1938, the old tune was put to new words in order to mobilize people
in the fight against the Japanese invaders.
Riding a white horse, carrying a rifle,
Third brother is with the Eighth Route Army.
Wanna go home to see my girl,
Hu-er-hai-yo,
But fighting the Japs I don't have the time.
After the rise of Mao as the undisputed leader of the Communist Party in
the early 1940s, this love song was reworked once more by a primary
school teacher and became a feature of Yan'an life.
The East is red, the sun has risen.
Mao Zedong has appeared in China.
He is devoted to the peoples welfare,
Hu-er-hai-yo,
He is the people's great savior.
[See "Songs of the Cultural Revolution," by He Shu, China
News Digest, Vol. 235, Oct. 18, 2000.]