This is something a bit different from my usual thing; one of my regular zoom sings has a theme each week, so I happened to be looking for a song about the Great Wall of China. I was hoping to find something in English, but instead found a Chinese song called The Great Wall Ballad. It was very interesting and has a haunting melody, and I was lucky enough to discover a video that had "singable English words". (hurrah!) According to the person who posted the video on YouTube:

"The Great Wall Ballad is a Chinese patriotic song written and composed by Pao Maonong and Liu Xue'an in 1937. The song became popular in China during WWII while they fought the Japanese. It is still popular today in both Taiwan and Mainland China due to its apolitical lyrics. I found the English translation used in this video in a 1940s American song book titled Fireside Book of Folk Songs (PDF here). The book credited the translation to Louise S Hammond, I can find about him. I also made some minor changes to his original translation.”

I also had a look at a Wikipedia article, which provided some interesting background and — even more usefully — four versions of the lyrics: in "simplified Chinese," "traditional Chinese," Pinyin (i.e. transliteration — which was very helpful when I had a go at singing the Chinese words), and English. After having a look at the English translation and comparing it to the "singable English words," I thought I might be able to tweak it to be a bit closer to the more literal translation.

So... here's my own "singable English" version, followed by Louise S Hammond's translation, followed by the more literal translation from the Wikipedia page.

If you want to hear the song itself, check out the first link I provided. (I've done a search on "Louise S Hammond" but not found much, sadly; just one 'hit' — a Chinese poem translated by her)

The Great Wall Ballad
by Pao Maonong and Liu Xue'an
New words by Vikki Appleton ©23 Feb 2025
adapted from an English translation by Louise S Hammond

Great Wall spans ten thousand li*
My home is safe behind thee
Beans in blossom, rip’ning grain,
Peace and sweet prosperity

Since the great catastrophe
Rape and looting everywhere
Children scattered, families dead
More than human hearts can bear

Day and night we long for home
Facing a foe so inhumane
We must fight to save our world
We shall not forget such pain

Great Wall spans ten thousand li
Ten thousand li is the new wall
Four hundred million share one heart
All for one and one for all

Day and night we long for home
Facing a foe so inhumane
We must fight to save our world
We shall not forget such pain

Great Wall spans ten thousand li
Ten thousand li is the new wall
Four hundred million share one heart
All for one and one for all

*li = Chinese unit of distance = ~1/3 mile or ~1/2 kilometre


The Great Wall Ballad
by Pao Maonong and Liu Xue'an
English translation by Louise S Hammond

Great Wall stretching mile on mile
My home lies out beyond thee
Beans in blossom, rip’ning grain
Treasure-laden, peaceful be

Since the evil days have come
Rape and murder fill the land
Children scattered, parents killed
More than human hearts can stand

Day and night we long for home
While our bosom swells with rage
At all costs we’ll fight our way
Fearing not what foes engage

Great Wall stretching mile on mile
We will build another wall
Of the faith of banded men
All for one and one for all

Day and night we long for home
While our bosom swells with rage
At all costs we’ll fight our way
Fearing not what foes engage

Great Wall stretching mile on mile
We will build another wall
Of the faith of banded men
All for one and one for all


The Great Wall Ballad
by Pao Maonong and Liu Xue'an
English translation found on Wikipedia

Ten thousand li is the Great Wall long,
Behind the Great Wall is my hometown.
The sorghum was rich and the soybeans fragrant,
Gold was all over the land, with no disasters.

Since the great catastrophe began,
The rape and looting was too bitter to endure
Hardship drove us to foreign lands
Fragmented, our kinfolk and parents died.

I shall never forget the avengement and enmity
I just want to go back to my hometown day and night.
We must all fight to protect our homeland
No matter how the Japanese enemy shows their tyranny

Ten thousand li is the Great Wall long,
Behind the Great Wall is my hometown.
400 million compatriots share one heart.
The new Great Wall is ten thousand li long.

Ten thousand li is the Great Wall long,
Behind the Great Wall is my hometown.
400 million compatriots share one heart.
The new Great Wall is ten thousand li long.