On this Day in Chinese History; 12 July

This day, 12 July, in 1937, Zhang Hanhui, an early underground member of the Communist Party of China, composed “Along the Songhua River” in Xi’an. Zhang wrote both the lyrics and music for the song that depicted life for the people along the River who had lost their homeland in the wake of the Mukden Incident 6 years earlier. The song strongly touched the pain of the Chinese nation’s subjugation.