The skyline at night of the Macao Special Administrative Region, China Photo: IC

The members of the choir who sang the "Song of the Seven Sons - Macao" to mark the Macao's return to China reunited to sing the song again at the Ruins of St. Paul's in Macao on Tuesday for the 20th anniversary of the event.

The hashtag for the choir's reunion has earned almost 100 million views on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo as Chinese netizens shared their warm memories of the song on the platform. 

"When I was a child, it was very popular to copy lyrics, and one of them was the 'Song of the Seven Sons.' At that time, I felt it was a beautiful song with a lovely melody, but I didn't have a deeper understanding of the meaning behind it. Although 20 years have past, I was moved to tears while listening to the song again as the lyrics are so touching," Liu Jianran, a 29-year-old civil servant in Tianjin, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The "Song of the Seven Sons" is a group of seven patriotic poems written by Wen Yiduo, a prominent Chinese poet and scholar, in 1925. Wen compared the seven ceded or leased areas in China, including the current Macao Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province, to seven children who were separated from the motherland.

"I had never imagined that the poems could become songs because I thought song lyrics are supposed to have a certain rhyme. But when the song debuted at the Chinese New Year Gala of China Central Television (CCTV) in 1999, I was pleasantly surprised how they perfectly matched the melody and the words of the poem. I remembered the song was played everywhere in Beijing. 'Do you know Macao has never been my real name? I have been away from you for too long, Mother. What they captured is my body, but my soul is always in your keep…'" said Wen Liming, grandson of Wen Yiduo, in an interview with CCTV 4. 

"I really want to thank Mr. Wen for writing these words. They are easy to understand and sing, but also clearly explain the past and present of Macao. It works to enhance the sense of identity and belonging of Macao people to the motherland. In contrast, the general education in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has a big problem, and the rude behaviors of some young people there are really confusing and disappointing," a netizen named Cardioid6 wrote on Sina Weibo.