Untitled Document

THE RED SUN: Singing the Praises of Chairman Mao
China Record Company

from Geremie Barmé, Shades of Mao

The following translations are of songs on side A of the casette/CD The Red Sun that became a MaoCraze hit in 1992. For a sense of what these mindnumbingly simple but heartfelt Cultural Revolution paeans to Mao sound like when sung to a saccarine Canto-Pop beat,(1) click on the links below (RealAudio required).

From the early 1990s many similar collections, imitations and sequels to the original The Red Sun tape were produced(2), as were karaoke versions of the songs with such titles as Sweet Sweet Red Sun.(3) Karaoke adaptations produced on video and laser disk utilized documentary footage of Mao as well as MTV-like montages of young people who, among other things, wander around wistfully thinking of the late Chairman.

In 1993, as part of the Mao centenary, tapes of speeches by Mao were also released. They featured such gnomic utterances as Mao's announcement of the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, as well as longer speeches made on such occasions as the Preparatory Meeting of the Chinese National People's Political Consulative Congress on 15 June, 1949.(4)

The Red Sun

Odes to Mao Zedong Sung to a New Beat

Singers: Li Lingyu, Sun Guoqing, Tu Honggang and Fan Linlin
With Li Li, Jing Gangshan, Zhu Hua, Wu Ming, Zhao Li and Li Xiaowen
Music Conducted by Jin Wei5
Accompanyment: Beijing Choral Orchestra

China Record Corporation,
Shanghai, China, 1992
(Compact disc digital audio)

The Sunshine is the Warmest, Chairman Mao the Dearest

The Sunshine is the warmest, Chairman Mao the dearest,
Your glorious Thought will forever shine in my heart.
The sun is the reddest, Chairman Mao the dearest,
Your glorious Thought will forever navigate my course.

The Bright Red Sun in the Sky

The Sun in the sky is red, burning burnished bright,
The sun in our hearts is Mao Zedong.
He led us to gain liberation,
The people stood up and became the masters.
Yi-ya-yi-zi-you-wei-ya-ya-zi-you-a.
The people stood up and became the masters.

The Red Sun Shines Over the Frontiers
(In the style of a "Korean minority" folk song)

The Red Sun shines over the frontiers,
The green mountains and clear waters are bathed in the morning light.
The fruit trees stand in rows at the foot of the Changbai Mountains,6
The rice on the banks of the Ganglan River is so fragrant.
Rend wide the mountains
and they will offer up their treasures.
Stop the rivers and build dams,
bringing the water up into the hills.
A-you...
The fighting spirit of the borderlands' people is high,
the army and the people on the frontiers are united to carry out construction.
Chairman Mao is leading us forward
in the direction of victory.

The Golden Sun in Beijing
(In the style of a Tibetan folk song)7

From that Golden Mountain in Beijing
the suns rays shoot out to illuminate the four directions.
And Chairman Mao is that Golden Sun.
How warm, how beatific,
bringing light to the hearts of the liberated serfs [of Tibet].
We are now walking on the great socialist highway of good fortune!

Eternal Life to Chairman Mao

Dearest Chairman Mao,
you are the sun in our hearts.
There are so many private thoughts that we would like to tell you.
There are so many songs of praise that we would like to sing to you.
Millions of red hearts think only of Beijing.
Millions of smiling faces welcome the red sun.
We respectfully wish you, Chairman Mao, eternal life!

Notes
1. See Thomas B. Gold, "Go With Your Feelings: Hong Kong and Taiwan Popular Culture in Greater China", The China Quarterly, December, 1993, pp. 907-925. Orville Schell says the rearrangement turns them into "transvestite-like songs". See Schell, Mandate of Heaven, p. 288.
2. These include such titles as Guoqude ge, Guiyang: Guizhou dongfang yinxiang gongsi (no date); Renmin wangbuliao Mao Zedong, Yanbian yinxiang chubanshe (no date); Zhongguo gechao Mao Zedong, Guangdong yinxiang chubanshe (no date); and, Hong taiyang OK, Beijing yinxiang gongsi, 1992.
3. Tiantian hong taiyang (xinshangban-OKban), Neimenggu yinxiang chubanshe, 1992.
4. Zhongyang dang'anguan/ Zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi, eds., Juren zhi sheng: Mao Zedong jianghua yuanshi luyin, Shenzhen: Shenzhenshi jiguang jiemu chuban faxing gongsi, 1993.
5. For details regarding Jin Wei's creative imput, see Zhao Xiaoyuan, "Ta tuoqile 'Hong taiyang'", Zhongguo qingnian, 1992: 11, pp. 26-27.
6. Located in the Southwest of Jilin Province, near the border with North Korea.
7. The original version of this song, along with a number of other popular nationalities' songs of the Cultural Revolution period, can be found on the LP record Zhufu Mao zhuxi wanshou wujiang--gezu renmin gechang Mao zhuxi, Beijing: Zhongguo changpianshe, 1967.