Hong Kong fans turn out to hear 'red songs'

Songs like I am Proud, I am Chinese used to be sung under chairman Mao Zedong's reign, and they still appear to have thousands of Hong Kong fans - who turned out this week to hear some favourites performed by Chongqing choirs.

'Red songs' have made a comeback in the southwestern city following a passionate 2008 campaign by Chongqing's Communist Party chief Bo Xilai which caught worldwide attention.

Bo has apparently been vying for a spot in the Politburo Standing Committee, but the detention of Chongqing's vice-mayor and former police chief Wang Lijun has cast a shadow over his ambitions.

Still, his red song revival was going down a storm in Hong Kong this week when a show featuring 13 Chongqing choirs - and a total cast of 420 performers, of all ages - came to town to celebrate the Spring Lantern Festival as well as the 15th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover. The lantern festival marks the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

About 1,400 people attended the City Hall performance on Monday and 1,080 turned out for a second show at Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the troupes performed for the People's Liberation Army at their naval base on Stonecutters Island.

The shows were primarily organised by the central-government-funded newspaper Ta Kung Pao, along with more than a dozen other Hong Kong organisations that were given complimentary tickets to the invitation-only events. Between songs, there were recitations of famous Chinese poems.