In November 1940, Paul Robeson received a phone call, perhaps from the noted Chinese writer Lin Yutang, asking him to meet a recent arrival from China: Liu Liangmo. Within half an hour, Robeson was in the caller’s apartment. Liu recalled Robeson “beaming over me with his friendly smile and his giant hands firmly holding mine.” They became fast friends. When Robeson inquired about the mass singing movement that Liu had initiated in China, Liu related the backstory behind the new genre of Chinese fighting and folk songs he had helped to invent for war mobilization, singing some examples. Robeson’s favorite was “Chee Lai!” or “March of the Volunteers,” because, as he explained, “Arise, Ye who refuse to be bond slaves!” expressed the determination of the world’s oppressed, including Chinese and Black people, to struggle for liberation. Listening intently to Liu’s rendition of the song, Robeson wrote down some notes, and left with a copy.