Yifan’s Song – Night of Military Port

Yifan loves to sing. In kindergarten, he will routinely sing a song for the class before everyone goes to bed at noon.

Here is his newest song – night of military port 军港之夜.

I know, you must be saying: Yifan grows up so fast. I feel so too. Yifan can learn a song in one night, and sing it in an accurate way – much better than his father. Another interesting thing about Yifan’s learning behavior is, he tend to listen to the same song again and again without ever giving it a try. The first time he sings it, he always sings from the beginning to the end corrected. That always surprises everyone.

13 thoughts on “Yifan’s Song – Night of Military Port

  1. What is the meaning of this song ?

    A propaganda song teach to the kids to brainwatch them, or something more interesting ?

  2. Wow! I think he’s talented at singing, and you can take him to KTV to sing some songs. Maybe he will like it.

  3. Adam Clark, you asked an interesting question, and actually, it is a very serious one (even beyond your own idea).

    The specific song Yifan sing was a pretty neutral one. It is describing the peaceful night of a military port, with sea wind blows softly, the sea waves sweep quietly, and all the soldiers fall in deep sleep…

    However, there are other propaganda songs (many of them) around. It is relatively hard for us to avoid those songs. That is a serious topic: how to educate the next generation. Yifan is in the stage to absorb everything around him. A kid is the combined influence of both family and the bigger environment. I can foresee that in the future, Yifan will start to get education in his primary school, and learn something that is not true. What should I do?

  4. Thanks Jian Shuo Wang for the song explaination!

    (If I ask this question it is because it is a serious one. I am fed up to listen chinese saying “mao ze dong was 70% right and 30% wrong” but they are not able to explain me what are these 70% right, and what is these 30% wrong… they are not able to give examples, not able to explain, they just repeat what they have been brainwatched to repeat at school)

    What should you do?

    Simply teach your kids to think by himself, and try to have discussion with him pushing him to debate and get him use to exchange point of views.

    Teach him that there is no THE TRUE, that many things are question of point of view, and that the people in beijing like to change the history and the present to a way it please them.

    You can also put your kids in a international school, that help, at least there he will not be brainwashed.

    As a foreigner living in China, there is no way that I let my future kids go to a public school rules by a gov who goal is not to educate my kids but to make citizens who will obey, shut up, and not question “THE TRUE” from beijing.

  5. Hi Jian Shuo

    I just stumbled across your blog, Yi Fan sang beautifully, doesn’t really matter if it’s a propaganda song or not, it’s just nice to hear a little child sing, the truth is I’m not even sure if he gets all of the meaning in that song or not.

    Also I can’t help noticing Adam’s comments, I just can’t stand foreigners CHOOSE to live in China but yet having this thing against it, if Adam seriously can’t stand the way China runs their education system then he can choose to go back to their own country, if he is afraid that his child might get influenced then he can choose to pack his own bags and + his child back to their own country, don’t make a choice and hate your choice, it’ll only make him look stupid!!!! China is just China and don’t forget that Adam choose to leave his own country, made the effort of applying + continue to renew his visa to be able to remain to live in China.

  6. Ena Pang,

    Thanks very much. I’m sure Adam will fully appreciate what kind of bad influence the brainwash education has on a kid after reading your post.

  7. I do not know where you are from Adam, but when you went to China for the first time, did not not realize that it is not AT ALL the country described in your home country ? A-communist country-with-no-freedom-of-speach-and-everybody-is-miserable. And yet, you were thinking “by yourself” back home, were you not ?

    “Ring around a rosy” that cute English nursery rhyme does refer to the Great Plague of 1665…

    “La Marseillaise” the French hymn calls out for war: “Aux armes citoyens, formez vos bataillons” and is played before every football game :) for instance.

    Soldiers in Irak listen to songs from “Slayer”. Hits like “Jihad” and “Mandatory suicide”…

    So that a kid sings about sleeping soldiers is nothing to worry about.

    “If you want peace, prepare for war”.

  8. To Ena Pang:

    You reply is too simple, you just repeat the common: “if you are here you can not make criticisms.” Why can I not love one country and still dislike some part of it? You know everything is not black or white.

    Instead of having this kind of reaction “I love china, nobody can say anything against it” which do not require any thinking, you could maybe ask yourself: “Why someone who love live and certainly love my country, and who has been living aboard before think that the education in China is brainwashing and not good ? is it really a problem? if yes, why is it like that? and how could I improve my country that I love?”.

    To one: your reply is quite sharp.

    To Mary:

    Where I come from, we are quite tought to think by yourself, it does not mean that we a clear view of the situation of the 200 countries around the world, there is of course bias and misunderstanding (even more for china because it change so quickly). And when I came the only ideas I had was: “far, different culture, fast development, still poor, no democracy and few freedom” life is not as I expected (because I did not know what to expect), but all these things were still right.

    A violent or not violent National anthem do not decided if the education system try to brainwash the student or try to make student questions and think by themselves.

  9. the portion lyric of “night of military port” sung by YiFan on the vedio show as follows:

    军港的夜啊静悄悄,

    海浪把战舰轻轻地摇,

    年轻的水兵头枕着波涛,

    睡梦中露出甜美的微笑

    海风你轻轻地吹,

    海浪你轻轻地摇,

    年轻的水兵多么辛劳……..

    just as mentioned above”The specific song Yifan sing was a pretty neutral one” i couldn’t agree with it more!

    Take it easy,okay,everyone? I don’t consider it some kindof “propaganda” and actually it’s a song,only a song,only some random stuff the boy learn to sing with,to speak with.don’t you think It’s our adults ourselves oversensitive?

    We have gone too far and how about just fofusing on the show ,on the cute boy? ~~woa! how cute!

  10. I love that kids sing. They sing from happiness within, and not from propaganda without. Doesn’t matter what country you are from, there is brainwashing. Give your child the permission to question things, and to decide for himself. But share your own opinions freely. You have nothing to worry about. Teach him well, teach him by example. There is good, and there is evil. We haven’t much control about a lot of things, but we can choose to follow our conscience as much as we are able.

    Your son is kissable, adorable, wonderful.

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