The bars around Shichahai Lake are being encouraged to restart a largely ignored campaign to revive "red songs," a local business association revealed Sunday.

Red songs are those defined by their patriotic or revolutionary content. The Shichahai Business Association and Shichahai Subdistrict Office of Xicheng District attempted to restart the plan at a conference entitled "Beijing Spirit and Me."

The red songs campaign, which was originally put forth in June this year, was dropped by many bars amid complaints of waning business and incompatibility with the audience.

"We did send a singer to attend the red songs competition held by the association in June," Qi Shengjun, one employee of the Houhai Heaven bar told the Global Times yesterday. "But to be honest, few people who visit the bars at Shichahai like this kind of music, it just doesn't suit the atmosphere here," he added.

Shichahai is a popular bar area in the capital for both Chinese and foreign tourists. The red songs initiative was part of a larger municipal campaign to boost "Beijing Spirit," defined as patriotism, innovation, togetherness and moral strength.

Despite a lackluster response from bar staff and patrons, Zhang Tao, secretary-general of the association, told the Global Times that dozens of bars had already joined the campaign.

"Our intention is not to replace pop music with red songs, but to encourage one or two shows in a certain time slot every day or once a week," she said, "This is not compulsory, just a proposal."

Zhang added that Shichahai is a tourist destination for the city and represents both traditional and modern culture, which makes it the best location to enforce the Beijing Spirit.

Staff at the Houhai No.5 bar said that they would only put on performances of red songs when the association was actively attempting a promotion of it.

"They regularly launch these type of activities, the last one was before the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party of China on July 1" said one member of staff at the bar yesterday. "Most of the people coming here are of the younger generation, and are not passionate about red songs. Currently, we don't provide such performances," he added.