The lyrics to "The East Is Red" were adapted from an old Shaanxi folk song about love. The lyrics were often changed depending on the singer. The modern lyrics were produced in 1942, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, attributed to a farmer from northern Shaanxi, Li Youyuan. It is possible there was an earlier version which referred to Liu Zhidan, a local communist hero, who was killed in Shanxi in 1936. Later, Mao's name replaced Liu's in the lyrics. The song was popular in the Communist base-area of Yan'an, but became less popular after the Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in 1949, possibly because some senior Party leaders disagreed with the song's portrayal of Mao Zedong as "China's savior".