In 1955, the first children's film "Flowers of the Motherland" produced by Changchun Film Studio was released. The theme song of the film was "Let's Swing the Oars", with lyrics written by Qiao Yu and music composed by Liu Chi.

"Let us row the oars, the boat pushes away the waves, and the sea reflects the beautiful white tower, surrounded by green trees and red walls..."

When you see the lyrics above, you must be singing and reciting them. As soon as the melody sounds, it seems to open a door to time, bringing generations back to the carefree days of childhood.

Do you know? This song that has influenced generations of people is actually the theme song of a movie. The song creation process is also very interesting.

In 1955, the first children's film "Flowers of the Motherland" produced by Changchun Film Studio was released. The theme song of the film was "Let's Swing the Oars", with lyrics written by Qiao Yu , composed by Liu Chi .

Lyricist Qiao Yu once recalled in an article that at that time, the director of the movie "Flowers of the Motherland" Yan Gong approached him and asked him to write the lyrics for the theme song of the movie, "Flowers bloom in spring, our motherland has already Take the steps of spring and write a wonderful beginning." This is Yan Gong's request.

Qiao Yu

Qiao Yu happily agreed, but found that it was not easy. One day, he and his girlfriend met in Beihai Park to go boating on the lake. At this time, a boatload of children rowed towards Qiao Yu and the others. The children's leisurely paddling attitude instantly opened the door to Qiao Yu's inspiration: "Let us row the oars, and the boat will push away the waves..." ..."

Qiao Yu, who was inspired, hurried ashore, took out a small notebook and started writing. In this way, in less than 20 minutes, the lyrics of "Let's Swing the Oars" were written in Beihai Park.

After having the lyrics, director Yan Gong asked composer Liu Chi to compose the music.

One day, director Yan Gong led all members of the film crew and a group of children to the Summer Palace for a boating trip. Liu Chi also followed suit to find inspiration. The director requires the children to learn rowing techniques and movements on the boat and become familiar with the water environment to be filmed.

Liu Chi, who has been afraid of water since he was a child, also bit the bullet and got on the boat. At first, he could only sit quietly, holding on to the side of the boat with both hands, not daring to move. But the children on the boat rowed and made noise happily, and their lively and cute demeanor infected him. Liu Chi started having water fights and boat races with the children, which was like returning to his childhood. When the boat was about to reach the Tongniu on the east bank of Kunming Lake, Liu Chi suddenly had an inspiration in his mind. He immediately told the rowing children: "Hurry to the shore, hurry to the shore!"

Liu Chi

Just like that, he sat on the stone by the lake and quickly finished composing the tune "Let's Swing the Oars". After completing the composition, Liu Chi gathered the children and sang the newly written song to everyone.

"At that time, my father wrote a version in 2/4 time. The music teacher present suggested changing it to a version in 3/4 time and sang it to the children. In the end, the children thought that 2/4 time was more like rowing. This classic song This is how the song was born," said Liu Xinxin, Liu Chi's son.

This was the first collaboration between Liu Chi and Qiao Yu. It was precisely because of this collaboration that later lyrics and music such as "My Motherland" and "Ode to the Motherland" were born, leaving behind classic musical masterpieces.

According to records, in the years after the movie "Flowers of the Motherland" was released, whenever you enter Beihai Park, you can always hear adults and children singing this song. After the film was released, it won the first prize in the feature film of the second National Children's Literature Award in 1980 (1954-1979). The song "Let's Swing the Oars" won the first prize at the Second National Children's Song Awards in 1980, and was later included in primary and secondary school music textbooks.

In the late 1980s, the famous Chinese conductor and educator Yang Hongnian went to the United States with an art delegation to perform. During a performance specifically to express condolences to overseas Chinese, many old overseas Chinese in the audience passed notes to the stage asking: " Why didn't you sing "Let's Swing the Oars"? Can you sing "Let's Swing the Oars" for us in the next performance?" Yang Hongnian was surprised when he saw these little notes. He didn't expect this song to be played. It makes old overseas Chinese in foreign countries never forget it.That night, Yang Hongnian barely slept and quickly contacted China to find music scores and piano accompaniment. During the performance on the second day, when the music of "Let's Swing the Oars" sounded, the audience stood up, applauded and sang in tears...