Students at a Hong Kong school drowned out the Chinese national anthem at a ceremony marking the start of the year with a rousing version of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical “Les Misérables.” Footage shows teachers standing stoically as students sing: “Do you hear the people sing?/Singing a song of angry men?/It is the music of a people/Who will not be slaves again!” The footage is going viral on social media:

Hong Kong secondary school students singing "Do You Hear The People Sing" during school assembly on top of the national anthem background music. Wow!



original link: https://t.co/L3fkD3mjTU#HongKong#HongKongProtestpic.twitter.com/NosVMyjOaI — LO Kin-hei 羅健熙 (@lokinhei) September 3, 2019

A longer clip since removed from YouTube showed the students singing the song twice, at the start of the ceremony and as the teachers filed out at the end. The song has become an anthem for protesters in the city seeking greater democracy. The footage shared on YouTube and Twitter appears to be from Po Leung Kuk Celine Ho Yam Tong College. Like many secondary schools in Hong Kong, the school has “college” in the name but educates children who in the United States would be roughly the age of students in middle school and high school. The start of the school year in Hong Kong has been marked by more protests, along with student-led strikes and boycotts, as well as demonstrations and songs. To some commenters, the moment called to mind a scene in “Casablanca” in which singing German officers are drowned out by “La Marseillaise.”