Well, I’m finally in the home stretch of this Urban China book. It’s been months, but the edit and design are done and I’m mostly working on details now. This week I’m just doing research to fill in some gaps and explain some references that us foreigners might not get. One of the things I worked on today was a reference to a song called “Sailing the seas depends on the helmsman.” It’s one of those feel good orchestra jams that were so popular during Mao’s time. There’s been a lot of attention paid to Chinese revolutionary posters in the past few years, but not much on music. So here’s the song…

Yu Wen (lyrics) & Wang Shuangyin (music) - Sailing the seas depends on the helmsman

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Here’s the lyrics…

大海航行靠舵手，
Sailing the seas depends on the helmsman,

万物生长靠太阳。
The growth of all living beings depends on the sun.

雨露滋润禾苗壮，
Rain and dew nourish young seedlings,

干革命靠的是毛泽东思想。
Conducting revolution depends on Mao Zedong Thought.

鱼儿离不开水呀，
Fish cannot leave the water,

瓜儿离不开秧。
Melons cannot leave the vine.

革命群众离不开共产党。
The revolutionary masses cannot do without the Communist Party.

毛泽东思想是不落的太阳。
Mao Zedong Thought is a sun that never sets.

Both the mp3 and translation are from the recently emboldened proletarians at marxists.org

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