The second leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Incheon, South Korea, was held on Nov. 13.
During the men’s final between Hong Kong and South Korea, a widely known song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” which was adopted as the anthem of the protests of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in 2019, was played in the stadium. The anthem was supposed to be the national anthem of communist China.
According to the preliminary information provided by the Hong Kong Rugby Union to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong government, Asia Rugby confirmed that the recording of the national anthem submitted by the coach of the Hong Kong team was correct and explained that the incident happened “due to a simple human error from a junior member of the local organizing committee, playing a song downloaded from the internet instead of the correct anthem.”
Hong Kong Government Shocked
The footage was widely circulated online. The Hong Kong government issued a statement of criticism. It strongly deplored and opposed the playing of a song associated with the “independence” movement in 2019 and demanded a full and in-depth investigation of the incident.The government stated that the Hong Kong team had brought the mistake to the attention of the organizer as soon as the wrong anthem “Glory to Hong Kong” was played at the stadium.
Organizer Apologized
The organizer made a public announcement expressing an apology for the mistake immediately after the game. The anthem of communist China was then played for the prize presentation ceremony after the Hong Kong Team had won the final.The apology was announced in the stadium in Korean and English languages before the prize presentation ceremony, and the Hong Kong men’s team lined up again, and the anthem “The March of the Volunteers” was played during the ceremony. Furthermore, Asia Rugby took the match footage off the air immediately and replaced it with the communist Chinese anthem on their social media platforms. They also posted a statement of a formal apology.
In the official footage currently posted online, there is about a 10-second silence for the anthem-playing session before the game. It then resumed playing audio of the anthem of communist China. The footage is also set to “unlisted.”
People Were Moved
As suspected, the original version of the footage is being widely circulated online. Within five hours, about 8,000 likes were received at the post of the footage on a Facebook page owned by a Hongkonger in Britain.Among the 400 comments, almost all of the readers commented that they were moved by hearing the song “Glory to Hong Kong” and expressed support for it becoming a “Hong Kong anthem.” Some people mocked the Hong Kong government, saying only, “A few would notice that South Korea had played the ’true Hong Kong anthem.' Thank you, HKgov., for bringing it to the attention of the public.”
In a retweeted post, some comments on the original version of the footage even received a lot of applause from mainland Chinese who used simplified Chinese characters.
More About ‘Glory to Hong Kong’
The song “Glory to Hong Kong” was deemed to be the “Hong Kong anthem” by the public during the protest. It is a song composed and published by a group of Hong Kong netizens and adopted as the anthem of protests during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and symbolized the movement and democracy.The lyrics of “Glory to Hong Kong” broadly mean: “no more tears on our land” and “in wrath, doubts dispelled we make our stand” after all the tears falling on Hong Kong’s land and rage vented in protesters’ cries, people refused to be silent for justice and chose not to back down and took it to the streets, with the courage and wisdom of Hongkongers surviving the dark time and moving toward “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times, look to the future of long-lasting democracy and liberty.”
Crowds gathered in New Town Plaza, Hong Kong, on Sept. 11, 2019, singing loudly, “Glory to Hong Kong.” This happened many times at different venues all over Hong Kong during the 2019–2020 protests.
Attacks Target the Rugby Team
Even though the government has already stated that the incident was caused by an error made by a junior staff member of the local organizer, official footage was re-uploaded, showing a reshoot video of playing the anthem of communist China, and the Western players were requested to sing. Some pro-Beijing politicians pointed their fingers at the Hong Kong Rugby team.A member of the Legislative Council, Junius Ho Kwan-yiu even accused the Hong Kong team players of being “not responsive” and “humiliat[ing] the country” during the incident. He said the team was a “total failure” and “should be dismissed.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was interviewed on the evening of Nov. 14 and claimed the Hong Kong police would investigate whether the Hong Kong National Anthem Ordinance or other laws were violated during the incident.
One week ago, when Lee attended the Hong Kong Sevens finals on Nov. 6, he said the success of holding Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong proved that Hong Kong is gradually returning to normal.
