Zhang Guangnian Creates the Epic Poem *The Yellow River*
In Mandalay, the ancient capital of Burma, in the early 1940s, a majestic Chinese-style building stood in Chinatown. Beneath its great roof of upturned eaves and interlocking brackets were the resplendent imperial hall of Zhongtian Temple, the temple of the loyal and righteous Lord Guan, the Guanyin Hall wreathed in incense smoke, and more. This was the “Yunnan Association Hall,” a building endlessly admired by Chinese and Burmese alike.
Every morning, the sound of running feet could be heard pounding outside the hall. During the day, there was clear and resounding singing. About 70 or 80 young people lived there. Among them were students, shop assistants, workers, reporters, editors, and others.
They were members of the Burma Overseas Chinese Wartime Work Team. They slept together on long communal platforms and ate from a common kitchen. All their expenses were supported by donations from patriotic local overseas Chinese. They lived a communist-style life. Their leader was the well-known poet Zhang Guangnian.
Zhang Guangnian—also known as Zhang Huafu, Zhang Huapu, Guang Weiran, and other names—was from Laohekou, Hubei, and was born in 1913. After Wuhan fell to the Japanese invaders in 1938, he led the Third Anti-Enemy Drama Troupe into the anti-Japanese base area in the Lüliang Mountains, and later went on to Yan’an.
The following January, at a Lunar New Year’s Eve gathering in Yan’an, Zhang Guangnian recited his poem *The Yellow River*. Xian Xinghai was extremely excited when he heard it and set the poem to music. In April, it was performed for the first time in the great hall of Northern Shaanxi Public School in Yan’an, creating a tremendous response. From then on, this great large-scale vocal work, *The Yellow River Cantata*, spread throughout China and around the world.
After the Southern Anhui Incident in 1941, “White Terror” hung over the rear areas. Zhang Guangnian, who was then in Chongqing, wanted to go to Hong Kong with some people he knew. Zhou Enlai said to him: “You are not going to Hong Kong. You are going to Rangoon. Some comrades are needed there to carry out work.”
Through Zhou Enlai’s careful consideration and many arrangements, Zhang Guangnian, Zhao Feng, Li Ling, and several men of letters from Xinhua News Agency arrived in Rangoon one after another.
In Rangoon, they received a warm welcome and much care from local progressive figures. They used Yanghua Public School as their base of activity, making friends through literature and holding a series of events—discussion meetings, recitals, singing competitions, and others—to connect with members and mobilize the masses. They taught without pay at Yanghua Public School. Their monthly allowance for incidental expenses was only 15 rupees. At that time, a primary-school teacher’s monthly salary was 40 to 60 rupees.
Zhang Guangnian and the others founded *New Knowledge Weekly* in Rangoon to promote resistance to Japan, democracy, unity, and progress. The weekly had rich and varied content: editorials, short commentaries, reviews of international affairs, brief reports on local overseas Chinese activities to resist Japan and save the nation, poetry, essays, and more. Every article held closely to the theme of defeating Japanese fascism.
*New Knowledge Weekly* was printed in a 16-kai format. Zhang Guangnian and Huang Yuqiu were its full-time editors. From the first issue to the final issue, Zhang Guangnian personally wrote for it, and every issue carried an article by him. Under the name Guang Weiran, he wrote a popular series of “Lectures on Literature.” Under other pen names, he wrote many miscellaneous essays and commentaries. Every piece was like a dagger thrust at the enemy. The weekly was welcomed by the overseas Chinese and sowed the seeds of patriotism and resistance to Japan among the broad ranks of overseas Chinese youth.
The Flames of War Draw Near — Establishing the Wartime Work Team
By the end of 1941, the weekly had published a total of 25 issues. After a major bombing by the Japanese invaders, it was forced to cease publication. Zhang Guangnian and the others immediately headed north to Mandalay, the ancient capital in central Burma. Under the leadership of the overseas Chinese Party organization, they established the “Burma Overseas Chinese Wartime Work Team.” Zhang Guangnian served as chief leader, while Li Ling and Zhao Feng were the music directors.
Most of the members were young overseas Chinese from different parts of Burma. Most had also been enthusiastic readers of and contributors to *New Knowledge Weekly*. While studying international affairs and political theory, they also rehearsed programs, drew posters, brushed anti-Japanese slogans, engraved and printed leaflets, edited *A Record of Japanese Atrocities*, pasted up exhibition pictures, and so on.
Their principal programs included *The Yellow River Cantata*, the living-newspaper play *Unite*, and the short opera *Song of the Yellow Flowers*. *Song of the Yellow Flowers* was an earlier work Zhang Guangnian had written in China. *Unite* was a new work he wrote in Burma. It exposed the savage atrocities of Japanese fascism and called upon the Chinese, Burmese, Indian, and British peoples to unite, fight together, and destroy the fascist aggressors.
In February 1942, during the Lunar New Year, the Wartime Work Team gave three days of public performances. The main program was *The Yellow River Cantata*. Zhang Guangnian personally went onstage to recite, Zhao Feng conducted, and Li Ling was responsible for stage supervision.
These performances created a sensation in the ancient capital of Mandalay. During the war, they helped inspire the will to resist Japan. After the war, they also had a positive influence upon and helped advance the patriotic singing movement among the Chinese in Burma.
After the Mandalay performances, the Wartime Work Team set out northward, touring important towns such as Maymyo, Kyaukme, Dibao, Lashio, and Sagaing. Everywhere they went, they received a warm welcome from the local overseas Chinese. In Maymyo, they also gave a special morale performance for British servicemen and received the praise and thanks of British officers and soldiers.
After the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma, language difficulties arose. The Wartime Work Team provided English and Burmese interpreters, helped the Expeditionary Force and the British Army communicate with one another, and helped resolve problems involving transportation and gasoline supplies. At the same time, they helped the Expeditionary Force communicate with local people. The Team also gave morale performances for the Expeditionary Force and served the wounded and sick. The officers and soldiers of the Expeditionary Force were deeply moved, and their determination to bring honor to the country grew still stronger.
Japanese Aircraft Bomb Madly — The Yunnan Association Hall Is Leveled
“The wind is roaring, the horses are neighing, the Yellow River is raging...”
The singing of *The Yellow River Cantata* was majestic and impassioned. It joined with the waves of the Irrawaddy River, surging and swelling. It stirred the Chinese, British, Burmese, and Indian peoples and inspired their will and confidence to resist Japan. But it enraged the Japanese fascist bandits, who in their madness wanted to destroy this unarmed cultural team.
Guided by Burmese traitors, Japanese aircraft bombed Mandalay on April 3, 1942, directing their attack especially at the Yunnan Association Hall and the railway station. The whole city became a sea of fire. In an instant, the Yunnan Association Hall, with its green tiles and red walls, became a heap of rubble. Three members of the Wartime Work Team were killed in the bombing, and two women members were seriously wounded.
The situation forced the Wartime Work Team to decide to withdraw from Mandalay. Together with employees of the Kaimin Printing Company, the *Overseas Chinese Commercial News*, the Mandalay Bookstore, and others—a total of more than 80 people—the Team boarded a river steamer and traveled northward, upriver to Bhamo. The journey took more than ten days. During the voyage, Zhang Guangnian continued teaching everyone to sing. There was no musical score. He simply sang “Take Up Our Red-Tasseled Spears” with his own voice and had everyone hum along.
Only a few days after they reached Bhamo, the fighting again became critical. In order to preserve the strength of the whole Team, they had no choice but to decide to withdraw to China in separate groups. The members traveled for more than 20 days, crossing mountains and ridges and enduring hunger. At last, they overcame all the dangers and returned to Kunming, Yunnan, in the great rear area of the motherland. They went separately to different posts and continued their work of saving the nation and resisting Japan.
Zhang Guangnian went to teach at Lunan County Middle School. With the strong assistance of Yang Yibo, director of the Lunan County Education Bureau, he continued his educational work of promoting unity and resistance to Japan.
① After completing this article, I saw the following report in the newspaper: The Heilongjiang Music Museum has the original full score that Xian Xinghai completed for *The Yellow River Cantata*. It also has photographs of the performance in Yan’an and five instruments used in that performance. Among them is a replica of a homemade instrument fashioned, during that time of material shortages, from an American-made oil drum and several strings. Its sound resembled that of a double bass. I add this account here.
(Originally published in the U.S. *World Journal*, March 19–20, 2007.)