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    'America the Beautiful' accompanies China launch

    AP – Fri, Sep 30, 2011

    BEIJING (AP) — China's state broadcaster isn't saying why the station ran the music to "America the Beautiful" during the gala live broadcast of the country's latest space launch.

    Strains of the famed American patriotic tune rang out following the launch of the Tiang Gong-1 experimental space station module late Thursday night.

    It wasn't clear why the music had been picked or whether CCTV producers were aware of the origins of the song, whose lyrics include the lines "America! America! God shed His grace on thee."

    An operator answering phones at CCTV's Beijing headquarters on Friday said no spokesman was available and calls to the station's international affairs department rang unanswered.

     

    256 comments

    • A Yahoo! User  •  7 mths ago
      Simple explanation is that the person who chose the song must have on translating the words America to mean "Beautiful country" downloaded it from the internet to be played at the launch. A camp awaits someone in need of their brain to be reprogrammed about Chinese "values".
    • Nick Sheezen
      Nick Sheezen  •  7 mths ago
      Because we Americans paid for it by shopping at Walmart and not buying Made in the USA. We're digging our own graves and we're as complacent as sheep about it.
      • johnb
        johnb 7 mths ago
        Right, and the union contracts over the last 50 years had nothing to do with the costs of operating, closing and moving plants as far back as the sixties. If you are willing to earn less to allow competitive manufacture and sales, and kill most of the regulations, then we maybe might could do. What's in your wallet, and where do you show. BAAAAAAAA
      • Khan T
        Khan T 7 mths ago
        LOL. Yup, we paid for it.
      • Matthew
        Matthew 7 mths ago
        right, if we were willing to work for #$%$ wages like the Chinese we'd be so much better off.
    • Carlos
      Carlos  •  7 mths ago
      It's because the stupid Bill Clinton gave China the rocket technology. China did not know how to do this but Clinton send our scientists to China to teach them. He called it "in the spirit of cooperation." What a moron.
      • Atl
        Atl 7 mths ago
        American's rocket technology was based on Germany's V2 rocket,The V-2 rocket was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, The rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known non-human-piloted artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets, including those used by the United States and Soviet Union's space programs.
      • tjiauw liat. DR TAN
        tjiauw liat. DR TAN 7 mths ago
        NO COLD WAR MENTALITY. IT IS HUMAN EVOLUSION AND HUMAN COOPERATION.........AND DONOT BE MISLEAD BY CHARLES DARWIN'S way of thinking in Human Evolusion of COMPETITION,

        DR TAN tjiauw liat
    • Kirstin
      Kirstin  •  7 mths ago
      Incidentally, for those who believe the music was stolen, or that they must have bought the copyright -- the song is public domain. Individual recordings may or may not be, but the song itself is old enough to be public domain. No one owns it; it cannot be stolen; it belongs to humanity.
    • Carlos
      Carlos  •  7 mths ago
      Here is an article from NY Times. Thre reason why Chinese are able to do this is because Stupid Clinton gave the technology to them.

      Clinton Approves Technology Transfer to China

      By JOHN M. BRODER
      Published: May 11, 1999
      • Atl
        Atl 7 mths ago
        American's rocket technology was based on Germany's V2 rocket,The V-2 rocket was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, The rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known non-human-piloted artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets, including those used by the United States and Soviet Union's space programs. The Chinese rocket in the beginning was based on Russian design.
    • Toledo
      Toledo  •  7 mths ago
      Maybe they played it by mistake, maybe it was to honor our space achievements, maybe it is to poke fun at us, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, while most all of you have lost sight of the most important, ----------- they are building a long term viable presence in space, something we're pulling back from.
      • .
        . 7 mths ago
        Never won a war after WW11 all Gas so try looking elsewhere I suppose so.
        July NASA said that a large patch of the moon would be a no fly zone from 30th Sept.
    • World Traveler55
      World Traveler55  •  7 mths ago
      I heard the first option was "Friday" sung by Rebecca Black but had downloading problems.
    • Frosty Dallas
      Frosty Dallas  •  7 mths ago
      they are mocking us FOOL!
    • Mike
      Mike  •  7 mths ago
      Got to ask yourself why would they choose that. That sounds to me like a jab at the USA for its declining space program. It makes me think that they chose that music to say...yeah...America was beautiful & so was its space program...but Now we are in charge...ha ha ha. Just a thought.
    • Frank
      Frank  •  7 mths ago
      More like they wanted to give Americans part ownership in the accomplishment, since China is a majority owner of America. You know...Thanking the little people.
    • Smokey Bear
      Smokey Bear  •  7 mths ago
      Im flattered. From the inventors of paper and gunpowder and kung-fu.
      • freeisdead
        freeisdead 7 mths ago
        You forgot Pasta.
      • J
        J 7 mths ago
        invented yes, but not much else since Mao. All since then has been copied and stolen from others.
    • Bill
      Bill  •  7 mths ago
      We are all Earthlings, and Spacelings.
    • Kirstin
      Kirstin  •  7 mths ago
      I'm convinced this was unintentional, and that it was just chosen by someone who liked the tune. They must not have known the lyrics. Very funny! The universe has a sense of irony!
    • ChcgoLatn
      ChcgoLatn  •  7 mths ago
      Station execs were unavailable for comment after being arrested.
    • James
      James  •  7 mths ago
      Because they own the rights to it now.
    • Miss
      Miss  •  7 mths ago
      That settles it. All future space launches by either Russia or China must be accompanied by the song "America the Beautiful." It's the only way to capture the luck and generally good safety record of the (former) U.S. space shuttle program. Use it and guarantee success for your mission!
    • Politically incorrect
      Politically incorrect  •  7 mths ago
      Not surprising at all.
      The Chinese word for America is literally "Beautiful Country."
      America the beautiful !

      The Chinese used to admire America.
      Without America, there would be no China.
      China used to be poor and helpless.
      The Chinese would have been conquered by the Japanese, if not slaughtered by them, had it not been for America's intervention.

      America used to be THE country to emulate.
      America was tolerance,
      tolerant of different cultures, different races, different religions, different ideas.
      America accepted them all.
      America was compassion,
      compassionate for the disadvantaged, the disabled, the unfortunate, the helpless.
      America protected them all.
      America was strength,
      strong in character, in wealth, in innovation, in knowledge.
      America symbolized them all

      It was every Chinese person's American dream to go to America to be educated there, perhaps marry an American, and stay in America.
      But America has changed !!
      Reading the comments from Americans here, it is easy to conclude that:
      Americans are petty.
      Americans are bigoted.
      Americans are selfish.
      Americans are vitriolic.
      America is not the America it once was.

      Now that China is no longer poor and helpless,
      China is yet another step closer to emulating what America used to be.
      And still admiring and reminiscing that "Beautiful Country"
      which is quickly slipping away into the American dream that is no longer a reality.
    • Douglas
      Douglas  •  7 mths ago
      U.S. dominance is gone in many areas and we better get used to it.
      How ironic a Marxist communist country will soon lead the world economically and now, in space. They got rich selling us stuff and lending us back the dollars with interest.
      Now we're broke and our government is paralyzed and impotent.
      That's the reality folks.
      Like all declining cultures, we lash out looking for scapegoats to blame and attack.
      We better look in the mirror.
    • Drive4me
      Drive4me  •  7 mths ago
      OMG this is not happening
    • WhoK
      WhoK  •  7 mths ago
      What is the surprise? They "borrow" a lot of things from us and the world...
     Post a comment
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