‘Glory to Hong Kong’: A new protest anthem moves singers to tears

It began with a few notes of warbling violin. A man with a harmonica and a backward baseball cap joined in. And then hundreds of voices joined in song Friday at Hong Kong’s Science Park, in one of the dozens of singing sessions belting out across the city.

But it was not just any song.

The composition, “Glory to Hong Kong,” written only three weeks ago by a composer identified only as “Thomas dgx yhl,” has ignited Hong Kong’s protest movement.

People, including the elderly and families with children, crowded into shopping malls across the city Friday, spontaneously singing the protest anthem that everyone suddenly seems to know by heart. Angus Wong, age 6, was at one mall with his parents, singing along, or trying to.

Some shed tears as they sang, in Cantonese: “Pray for democracy, for freedom eternal, for the glory to come back to Hong Kong!”

At the upscale IFC mall, a 28-year-old who gave his name only as Charlie played a grand piano at the heart of a singing crowd. He skipped work at a nearby office to join the gathering.

Protesters sang it at a solemn vigil Friday outside the Legislative Council to honor nine people who have died in the course of the protests, most by suicide.

Several hundred people gathered outside a maximum-security detention facility, Lai Chi Kok Reception Center, around 10:30 p.m. Friday to sing it, accompanied by a woman playing a recorder, in solidarity with pro-democracy activists being held there.