Hong Kong Protesters, Without an Anthem to Sing, Create One Online



Singing has been part of the demonstrations since they began: The “Les Misérables” hit “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and renditions of “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord,” a 1974 hymn by the American composer Linda Stassen, have been the most popular.

And it’s not the first music to rise out of Hong Kong’s protests. Protesters have long belted “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies,” a Cantonese-language rock song by the band Beyond, in pro-democracy rallies. In 2014, “Raise the Umbrella,” a collaboration of several Cantopop stars, became the unofficial anthem of the Umbrella Movement, a monthslong pro-democracy demonstration. The song was voted Hong Kong’s favorite of that year.



Ng Kwok Lun, a 30-year-old videographer, was one of hundreds of people to sing the song on Tuesday at Tuen Mun Town Center, a shopping mall. He said he felt “a great sense of belonging” that he had never felt while listening to China’s anthem, “March of the Volunteers.” (A survey of residents in June by the University of Hong Kong found that 76 percent of respondents identified themselves as Hong Kongers, while just 23 percent identified as Chinese.)