People visiting Shanghai Tower may have heard the song sung by crowds of students over the weekend, from the Hou Kong Middle School in Macao and Soong Ching Ling School in Shanghai. On invitation from the China Welfare Institute, the Macao students are in town to produce a TV program together with their counterparts in Shanghai to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the return of Macao to the motherland.

Hou Kong Middle School was the first school in Macao to raise the five-starred national flag on October 1 in 1949. Many local schools hold national flag raising ceremonies on Mondays like schools on the Chinese mainland.

The song — "Song of the Seven Sons — Macao" — was written by Wen Yiduo about Macao's separation from the motherland.

The students also sang other well-known songs, such as "Country" and "Tomorrow Will Be Better."

"I had heard the elders emotionally talking about the return of Macao to the motherland, but I did not have such deep feeling with them," said Ku Su-hang, a student from Hou Kong Middle School. "But when I'm here in Shanghai now, the feeling become concrete. The teachers and students in Shanghai have shown great hospitality and care for us. I do feel the warmth of the motherland in such compatriot connection."

Zhou Entong, a student from Soong Ching Ling School, said: "I love the song 'Country' in particular. The lyrics are simple, such as 'They say a country is big, but it's actually also a family," but they are meaningful. China has more than 1.3 billion people, we have to be united. The recognition of nation identity is the footing of a man in the world."

She added: "I have been in Macao. I saw the people there were of warm hospitality and they asked me a lot of questions about Shanghai. This time, we invite the young students from Macao to come over to have a close look at the motherland and its fast development."

Feng Lirong, principal of the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School, said: "The program has students from our school and those from Hou Kong Middle School sing the same songs and let them recall the history of suffering and fighting in the past 200 some years. In such activities, they develop understanding that only when you have a country, can you have a home."

"The development of Macao in the past 20 years after its return is obvious to all," said He Dingyi, chairperson of Women's General Association of Macao who came to join the production with the children. "Children are the future of a nation, and we have to create more such opportunities to let children from Macao and the mainland communicate with each other and enhance their connections."

(Source: Shanghai Daily)