Local middle school students will be allowed to sing Hong Kong and Taiwan pop songs in their music classes for the first time, instead of being limited to patriotic folk songs, many of which are decades old.

The city government's new list of 100 approved songs for middle school music classes includes three popular songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The three approved songs are: Snail by Taiwan singer Jay Chou, Hero by Jonathan Lee from Taiwan, and Hong Kong star Andy Lau's Chinese.

Teachers can begin using the three songs in their music classes immediately, according to the Shanghai Education Commission, which published the list of recommended songs.

The three songs encourage people to persevere in face of difficulties or laud the good natures of the Chinese people.

"The lyrics of these songs are inspiring," said Wang Yueping of the commission's art academic research office. "It is important for us to make a list which is both educational and caters to young students' tastes," he added.

As recently as the early 1990s, some local schools banned students from listening to pop music on campus as many popular love songs were considered irrelevant and a distraction.

The addition of pop songs to music classes was warmly welcomed yesterday by local students.

"We are always asked to sing monotonous revolutionary songs," said Wang Wenjia, a local student, adding that some of the old songs sound funny to modern students. "Finally we can sing something of our own."

Despite the additions to the list, most of the recommended songs are still traditional patriotic works written by Chinese folk musicians or old revolutionary songs that have been passed down for generations.

(Shanghai Daily March 16, 2005)