ReflectionsHong Kong soccer fans’ jeering of Chinese national anthem ‘virtually treasonous’ – but China didn’t have one until 1911
The country’s first official national anthem had a short run, having been introduced just six days before the Wuchang uprising that led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty
It’s extremely offensive to behave disrespectfully when any country’s national anthem is being played, but when it is directed at one’s own, it is virtually treasonous, which is why the central and city governments are inserting a national anthem law into Hong Kong’s statutes.
The notion of a national anthem came late in China’s history. Seeing how other modern nation states played their national anthems at important events, the Qing court’s ambassador to the United Kingdom composed a song in 1883 to be used as China’s, but his proposal was rejected.
Although a couple of unofficial anthems were played at subsequent overseas state events, it was only on October 4, 1911, that the imperial court finally approved China’s first official national anthem.