WATCH: Hong Kong protest song replaces China’s national anthem during rugby game in South Korea

Hong Kong protest song replaces China’s national anthem during rugby game in South Korea. Twitter/@krislc

The song “Glory to Hong Kong” was played prior to the men’s final match between South Korea and Hong Kong in the Asian Rugby Seven Series on 13 November at Incheon, a city to the west of Seoul. The song’s lyrics advocate for democracy and freedom and are associated with Hong Kong’s anti-China movement. The incident prompted a stern response from the Hong Kong government. As a result, the South Korean rugby tournament organisers had to seek an apology for replacing China’s national anthem with a song that Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors had adopted.

As an apologetic gesture, the organisers went on to play the Chinese national anthem subsequently for the victorious Hong Kong side during the award ceremony. Now, a video of “Glory To Hong Kong” playing during the game has been going viral on social media and is grabbing much attention.

Sharing the footage, a Twitter user wrote in the caption, “This is the clip when “Glory to Hong Kong,” the protest anthem, was played at the Asian Rugby Seven Series in South Korea.” Since being uploaded, the clipping has earned nearly five lakh views and has achieved more than 5,000 likes on Twitter. The sight of the stadium touched the hearts of the viewers and they largely appreciated it.

The song was penned by a local musician and popularized by protesters during extensive anti-government demonstrations in 2019. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region under Chinese sovereignty. In recent years, there have been numerous demonstrations reported from several parts of Hong Kong calling for further autonomy from the mainland, democratic reforms, and impartial investigations of government violations of human rights.

A user noted, “Real Hong Kong anthem! I wish this “mistake” can repeat often, good job.”

Another one also lauded the act by saying, “Nothing’s wrong with playing the song for HK, the real HK song/anthem (written by HKer). HKers never admit the CCPChina song to represent HK.”

An individual made a stern remark, “Whenever you did something which made CCP and the HKSAR government unhappy, you are doing the right thing.”

Here are some other notable reactions:

Later, the Seoul-based Korea Rugby Union declared that the incorrect song was played due to a human error and there was no political reason behind it. Officials claimed that someone in charge of selecting the national anthems unintentionally picked the protest song stored in the “Hong Kong” computer file folder.

Earlier, when each tournament participant submitted the audio of their respective nations’ anthems, they had unwittingly saved that music without realising it was associated with protesters.

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