celebrating
Victory over Japan Day The music and words of the song are both by
Chen Gexin (under the pen name Qing Yu). It was written in
Shanghai in 1945 to
celebrate the defeat of
Japan and liberation of
China at the end of the
Second Sino-Japanese War (
World War II). The final lines of this song replicate the typical beat of the Chinese drum. An early popular recording of the song was by
Yao Lee and her brother
Yao Min. Because its Mandarin title is also a common Chinese New Year greeting and the song celebrates the arrival of spring, it quickly became associated almost exclusively with New Year celebrations and remains a part of the season's musical canon. Contemporary versions of the song frequently appear on Chinese New Year musical collection
albums, sometimes as
electronic dance music performances and occasionally also feature lyrics in
Taiwanese Hokkien and even English. A more modern rendition of the song appeared on the 2002
China Dolls album 多一點點 – 小調大風行. This song was included in the
Pink Martini Christmas album
Joy to the World released in 2010, under the title "Congratulations - A Happy New Year Song" with vocals by
China Forbes and Timothy Yuji Nishimoto. Khởi My sung a Vietnamese adaptation called
Chúc Tết, and Xuân Mai also sung another Vietnamese adaptation called Chúc Xuân 1. ==Lyrics==