Ignorance of the past may be bliss but it's no excuse for spoofing it

A VIDEO spoof of the Yellow River Cantata, a classic patriotic choral work composed in 1939, has evoked an outcry, as it replaces the words Yellow River in the lyrics with "year-end bonus". People's Daily comments:

The Yellow River Cantata helped unite the whole nation in the most dangerous stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), and it is still part of the nation's collective memory of that struggle.

Tampering with it is an insult to the huge sacrifice the Chinese people made in that war－more than 30 million people were killed or wounded.

The continual lowering of the bottom line of entertainment is worrisome, as it constitutes spiritual pollution. Such degradation of social morality should be curbed because it undermines national unity and promotes historical nihilism.
History is by no means an empty basket that accepts whatever the future throws into it, but something lived by those who preceded us.

That a number of organizations, including companies, schools and media, use the vulgar video clip in their annual meetings or evenings to warm up the atmosphere lays bare the seriousness of their amnesia and the eroding of their values.

The media and internet administrative departments should wait no longer to prevent the spreading of such culturally bankrupt video clips, and take this incident as an opportunity to raise people's awareness of the need to reject such kinds of vulgar and morally corrupt entertainment.

As the saying goes, "People who do not understand the history of their own birth are always a child." By respecting such enduring works, we are respecting our history and thus respecting ourselves and the future.