False posts share South Korea children's choir clip with fabricated lyrics thanking Mao Zedong
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 18, 2023 at 10:35
- 3 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"The true lyrics of Jeong Yul-seong's song," reads the Korean-language title of a YouTube clip posted on August 29, 2023.
Jeong -- also known by his Chinese name Zheng Lucheng -- was an ethnic Korean composer who became a Chinese citizen in 1956 and penned the Chinese military's official anthem.
He fought in China's army on the side of the communists during the Korean War and is consequently regarded as a traitor by many South Koreans.
The 22-second clip, watched more than 190,000 times shows a children's choir performance of a Chinese song called "We Are So Blessed" penned by Jeong.
Below the clip, Chinese captions claim the lyrics of the song say: "What a happy life we lead / We follow Chairman Mao to sing and dance / Thank you for building many schools / Ha ha ha / Let us follow Chairman Mao and march on and on."
Korean captions meanwhile claim the song says: "What a happy life we lead / Thank you dear Chairman Mao / For building many schools / Ha ha ha / Let us follow Chairman Mao and march on and on."
The post circulated as the southwestern Korean city of Gwangju -- where Jeong was born -- reportedly announced a controversial plan to build a park to commemorate the songwriter.
The clip was also shared in a report by FNToday, a South Korean online news outlet, and in Facebook posts here and here.
False captions
However, an analysis of the clip by AFP journalists fluent in Chinese and Korean found it contains captions that had been fabricated to insert references to Mao.
The children could actually be heard singing: "What a happy life we lead / The morning breeze blows the five-star red flag / The colourful sun dyes the mountains and rivers red / Ha ha ha / We learn with so much fun."
Korean subtitles in the clip by broadcaster MBC Gwangju -- which originally published the video -- translated the second line as "we wear our bags every morning" apparently to remove the reference to the Chinese flag.
The broadcaster uploaded the full performance to YouTube on July 30, 2018. It subsequently made the video private at the request of the schools which complained their students were being harassed, according to a spokesperson for MBC Gwangju.
An AFP journalist was able to view the full video and found it contains no mention of Mao.
Its full first stanza translates to English as: "What a happy life we lead / How happy we are in our studies / The morning breeze blows the five-star red flag / The colourful sun dyes the mountains and rivers red / Whether in the city or in the country / All the children go to school
Ha ha ha / What a happy life we lead."
Chinese performances of the song, aired by China's state broadcaster CCTV here, here and here contain the same lyrics (archived links here, here and here).
The song has also been performed on multiple other occasions in South Korea, including in a different style seen in this adult performance at a 2020 music festival commemorating Jeong's legacy (archived link).
Another Korean rendition by an ethnic Korean children's choir in Yanji, China translates the song slightly differently compared with the MBC edition (archived link).
None of these performances mention Mao.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
