A copy of the record album by American singer Paul Robeson named "Cheelai" is seen in Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in this undated photo.  [Photo/CFP]

The March of the Volunteers，the national anthem of China was once heard in an open-air concert in New York – in rusty Chinese. It was in 1941 and the singer was American Paul Robeson.

The American black singer and actor was sympathetic to Chinese people who suffered the aggression of Japan and supportive of their fight. He knew Chinese musician Liu Liangmo, who was on a US visit in 1940, and got interested in Chinese revolutionary songs.

Liu taught Robeson the Chinese version of The March of the Volunteers sentence by sentence and the song soon became popular in New York. Robeson then translated the song into English and published a record named after the climax of the lyrics "CheeLai" (stand up) in New York.

Robeson sent some of the copy money from the record to the relatives of Tian Han and Nie Er, the writer and the composer of the song. It is a pity that he had never had a chance to travel to China in his life. He died in 1976.