Chinese music to be played in space

Chinanews, Shanghai, Oct 18 – China's
first moon probe satellite Chang'e No. 1 will be sent to space soon. Along with
the satellite, 30 classical Chinese songs and music pieces will also be sent to
space. These songs include My Lovely Hometown (Shui Bu Shuo An Jia Xiang
Hao), Moonlight over Erquan Springs, Ode to the Yellow River,
The Butterfly Lovers, etc, the Shanghai Evening Post reported.

These songs and music pieces will be played by Chang'e No. 1 after the
satellite reaches its destined orbit, which is 380,000 kilometers away from the
earth. By then, Chinese people can hear these songs sent via satellite
transmission for the first time in radio, TV or online.

The 30 songs and music pieces are selected through a nationwide public
vote. In July 2006, secretary general of the Commission of Science, Technology
and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) Huang Qiang, who is also COSTIND's
spokesperson, announced COSTIND's decision that Chang'e No. 1 satellite will
carry 30 songs and music pieces into space for its launch, and people across the
country could select their favorites and recommend them to COSTIND during a
nationwide campaign for the selection.

At that time, COSTIND's Moon Exploration Engineering Center recommended
more than 150 songs and music pieces as candidates. They included China's
national anthem, Peking opera Drunken Beauty, a piece of Huangmei opera,
traditional Chinese song Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon and pop song
Wish You Everything Good (Zhu Ni Ping An), etc

With three rounds of selections, the organizer of the event then
publicized their criteria on how a candidate song could be selected – that the
theme of the song should be related with one's love for the motherland, the
Yellow River, Yangtze River, the moon, or the national cultural heritage
included in the first batch of UN cultural heritage list; the song could also be
classical Chinese songs, traditional opera arias, or children's songs; these
songs should also reflect overseas Chinese people's love for their motherland.
With these criteria, some 30 songs and music pieces were finally selected. Apart
from traditional songs like The Butterfly Lovers and My Lovely
Hometown, there are also some songs produced in recent years, including
Loving China (Ai Wo Zhong Hua), Singing for Our Motherland (Ge
Chang Zu Guo), etc. In addition to these 30, the song March of the
Volunteers and The East is Red (Dong Fang Hong) were also selected.
The former song is China's national anthem and the latter was once played on
China's first manmade satellite DFH-1. The two songs have been selected because
of their special historical significance.