Singing at the top of their lungs, the 40 perplexed-looking children belted out an age-old revolutionary song in the school auditorium: 'There would have been no new China without the Communist Party ... the party leads China on to a bright future.'
In the audience, hundreds of Form One students watched and listened to the blaring chorus while anxiously waiting their turn on stage at this 'Everybody Sings Revolutionary Songs' assembly. As well as No Communist Party, No New China - one of the most-sung songs on Earth - they let rip with a number of military choruses from the communist army in the 1940s.
The performances sounded very much like a routine propaganda session at a typical mainland school, except for the students' halting Putonghua. But no, this was at Hou Kong School, one of Macau's elite establishments. It was the latest wave of enforcing patriotic education, mainland style, in the former Portuguese enclave.
More than 700 students from 17 Form One classes were mobilised in the fiery assembly last month. After months of practice, many youngsters spontaneously hummed the revolutionary lyrics in their spare time, according to chorus instructor Chao Kai-fan. 'We couldn't help singing during a bus ride on a school outing,' said U Wai-cheong, the student master of ceremonies at the singing assembly. 'As Chinese, we should learn to sing the revolutionary songs - it's a shame if you don't understand the revolutionary history.'
But others found them more funny than inspiring. 'We never came across such songs before, and found them very funny,' said another student participant. 'Some students had a discussion and decided those things were [not] real life.'
Pro-Beijing schools and Catholic schools represented the two main systems of secondary education in Macau, said legislator Au Kam-san. One system's aggressive teaching of mainland-styled patriotism - and the other's reluctance to discuss politics - had both contributed to skewed patriotic views among young people, he said.