Hong Kong protest song tops overseas Google search results, despite efforts to elevate China national anthem in local rankings

Recent efforts by Hong Kong authorities to ensure China’s national anthem was the top result in Google searches have failed to pay off in other countries, as links including one to a protest song were still found to have trumped other entries.

The South China Morning Post found on Thursday (Apr 20) that a Google search with the phrase “Hong Kong national anthem” still showed a Wikipedia page for Glory to Hong Kong, a song written during the 2019 anti-government protests and which had ranked first for months, was listed as the top entry in places such as Singapore, Canada and Australia.

The song was ranked second for the same search in other places, including New York, London and Taiwan, where the top entry was another Wikipedia page about the history of Hong Kong’s anthems with reference to China’s March of the Volunteers and Britain’s God Save the King.

The site also provided information about other tunes, including the Cantopop song Below the Lion Rock and the protest song, both dubbed “unofficial national anthems”.

The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau’s newly updated webpage providing information about March of the Volunteers, including links for audio and video downloads, was placed below them in all of these locations.