美国国家公共电台 NPR In Hong Kong, Booing China's National Anthem Is About To Get More Risky

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's hear about a national anthem¹ protest that is playing out on the other side of the world. China passed a law last month. It says those who protest its national anthem can be criminally charged and sentenced up to three years in prison. China is demanding that Hong Kong, which is under its control, enforce the law there as well. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports that this is a problem in a city where free speech enjoys much broader protections.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) We are Hong Kong.

(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) We are Hong Kong.

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE²: We are Hong Kong is the cheer tonight among thousands of red-shirted fans at the city stadium, tucked into the lush mountains and jagged skyscrapers³ of Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong's soccer team is playing Lebanon, and the audience quiets down for the visiting team's national anthem.

(SOUNDBITE OF WADIH SABRA'S "LEBANESE NATIONAL ANTHEM")

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Cheering).

(APPLAUSE)

SCHMITZ: The polite applause takes a turn, though, when the national anthem of China - technically⁴ Hong Kong's anthem too - begins.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Booing).

SCHMITZ: China's national anthem can barely be heard. Stadium personnel line the aisles⁵, waving their hands to discourage fans, but it only manages to make them boo louder.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Booing).

SCHMITZ: The booing has now become a regular part of international soccer matches in Hong Kong ever since 2014, when the city was embroiled⁶ in violent protests over China's refusal to allow residents to directly elect their leader. Soccer fan Rose Tse says it's a message to Beijing.

ROSE TSE: (Through interpreter) I don't think the song is worth our respect. You need to earn our respect. You can't force people to respect you.

SCHMITZ: When it comes to its national anthem, China begs to differ.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MARCH OF THE VOLUNTEERS")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in Chinese).

SCHMITZ: Last month, China banned the use of this song in commercials and parodies⁷, promising⁸ to punish those who do not stand with respect and maintain a dignified⁹ bearing when the anthem is played. Beijing then inserted this law into Hong Kong's constitution. Now Hong Kong's legislature must enact¹⁰ and enforce its own version of the law. This has left Hong Kong legislators like Alvin Yeung scratching their heads.

ALVIN YEUNG NGOK-KIU: How are you going to enforce it? We're talking about stadium. We're talking about hundreds of people. If all these people boo, are you going to arrest all of them? Well, that is my concern. If a law is unenforceable, the law can hardly be respected.

SCHMITZ: But Yeung, a lawyer, says there's a bigger concern.

YEUNG: Some of the Hong Kongers, they are not happy with the Chinese rule, so they have their own way to express that. And I do have strong concerns that while the - this anthem law will - is another indication of China's encroachment¹¹ to Hong Kong's high autonomy.

SCHMITZ: Yeung says the new national anthem law will likely start to be enforced by next summer. Professor Chung Kim-wah, who teaches social sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic¹² University, worries about what'll happen at the first soccer match after the law goes into effect.

CHUNG KIM-WAH: Well, I think the government, when it try to implement¹³ the legal requirement, it should be very careful. Otherwise, some confrontation¹⁴ or even violence is likely.

SCHMITZ: Back at Hong Kong Stadium, red-shirted soccer fans make it clear where their loyalties¹⁵ lie.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) We are Hong Kong.

(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)

SCHMITZ: Soccer fan Rose Tse, who relishes¹⁶ in booing China's national anthem, hasn't yet thought about what he's going to do once the new law goes into effect.

TSE: (Through interpreter) Maybe I'll just stay home or I'll wait until the anthem's done before I enter the stadium or I'll just get up and go to the toilet as my own form of protest.

SCHMITZ: Tse says he's not interested in going to prison, but he will if he has to. After all, that's what happened to Tian Han, the poet who wrote the lyrics¹⁷ to China's national anthem. Three decades after writing the song, called "March Of The Volunteers," Tian was imprisoned¹⁸ in China as a counterrevolutionary. He died behind bars, but his lyrics, which call on all Chinese who refuse to be slaves to rise up, are now protected with the threat of prison.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MARCH OF THE VOLUNTEERS")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in Chinese.)

SCHMITZ: Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Hong Kong.

(SOUNDBITE OF EMANCIPATOR'S "DAFFODIL PICKLES")