Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China

"Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" is a very popular song in the People's Republic of China, which originated in 1943.

Background

During World War II when China was fighting the Japanese invasion, Chiang Kai-shek published a book titled ''The Destiny of China'' on March 10, 1943, with a slogan that "without the Kuomintang there would be no China." The Communist Party of China published an editorial entitled "Without the Communist Party there would be no China" in the ''Jiefang Daily'' on August 25, 1943 to criticize the book, concluding that "if today's China had no Communist Party of China, there would be no China." In October 1943, Cao Huoxing , a 19-year-old member of the Communist Party of China, created the lyric for "Without the Communist Party There Would Be No China", based on this.

In 1950, shortly after the foundation of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong changed the title to "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China," by adding the word "new."

The song is included in the Cultural Revolution-era musical ''The East Is Red''.

On June 26, 2006, a memorial in honour of the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" was opened in Fangshan District, Beijing, China with an area of 6000 m² .

Lyrics

Note: Cao Huoxing made the Communist Party masculine in the official lyrics by using 他 that would literally mean "he", even though it would be normally considered neutral. However, gender is indistiguishable in spoken Chinese and both "he" and "it" share the same spoken form.