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A new series of TV broadcasts featuring the national anthem - and, for the first time, subtitles for the lyrics - will be launched on Hong Kong television channels on National Day tomorrow.

They are designed to promote not only national identity, but also Chinese virtues and arts, says the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education, which is behind the initiative.

The Chinese-language series comprises 12 broadcasts featuring different Chinese customs, aspects of culture and values such as filial piety, perseverance and harmony. Each lasts 15 seconds.

The committee denies the series, for broadcast before news bulletins, is meant to brainwash audiences. It is  meant to foster a national identity among Hong Kong people, it says. But one political analyst believes it will take more than a TV broadcast to get Hong Kong people to recognise China's virtues.

The series is the third since the committee introduced the broadcasts in 2004. In it, the anthem is performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Children's Choir.

The first series also featured a sung version of the anthem. But the new series adds subtitles.

Rock Chen Chung-nin,  convenor of the committee's working group on national education, said yesterday that it decided to include the singing of the anthem because 49 per cent of respondents to a Home Affairs Bureau survey said that was what they wanted.

Of 1,803 people interviewed for the survey in June, 62 per cent said the broadcasts featuring the national anthem should continue. Twenty-eight per cent of respondents said the broadcasts offered Hong Kong people significant help in understanding China, and 31 per cent thought they had definitely helped shape people's sentiments towards the nation. However,  a quarter said the broadcasts were of no use in understanding China or fostering national sentiment.

Mr Chen denied that the broadcasts, which since their launch have been criticised as propaganda in some quarters, sought to brainwash viewers.

'There is no instruction or manipulation in the commercials,' he said.

Lingnan University political analyst Li Pang-kwong  said broadcasts featuring the national anthem were a superficial formality which would not help much in building national  sentiment.

'A lot of people have been thinking about the Chinese government when they think of the country,' he said. 'So when they have a negative impression of the government, it will be harder for them to build up [positive] sentiment towards the country. More will have to be done - such as education at school - and it will take time.'



Subtitles to feature in new series of national anthem broadcasts on TV