June is a bittersweet month for many students in China. After their years of hard work, they will finally say farewell to campus life, an experience which leaves most with mixed feelings.

It was this complex emotional recipe that gave rise to the time-honored tradition of the "graduation song." These songs are an important part of these students' last days on campus, and immortalize their experiences in lyrics.

Many talented voices have contributed to this music genre. Among the most influential graduation songs in Chinese history was a song aptly titled "Graduation Song," from the movie Tao Li Jie (Plunder of Peach and Plum) which was released in 1934. Written by famous writer Tian Han and composer Nie Er, the partners who co-created China's national anthem "March of the Volunteers," the song was written by these artists in an attempt to question the huge disparity between the expectations of graduates and the reality after graduation.

The song has a rousing, high-spirited tone, reflecting students' limitless ambitions and heavy responsibilities, and is loved by Chinese audiences of all ages. Hua Luo, a 42-year-old sales manager, recalls how "Graduation Song" influenced their generation deeply and added that he is still touched by it even today. "It pays homage to the hopes of building a better world as well as living up to our moral values. It was pretty encouraging to us young people, as we were heading out to embrace the world," said Hua.

Not all graduation songs are quite so rousing. "Song Bie" ("Farewell"), is a more traditional Chinese-style piece. Although the rhyme was actually adopted from American composer John Pond Ordway's "Dreaming of Home and Mother," Li Shutong, the renowned Chinese artist and writer, wrote Chinese lyrics for it in 1915. Li's creativity was well illustrated in the poetic Chinese lyrics, which not only successfully conveyed the sorrow of saying goodbye, but also amazingly gave this American rhyme a distinctly oriental tone. This has made the song a must at every farewell graduation gala event.

China has a rich collection of graduation songs from a variety of different periods of history. Aside from "Graduation Song" and "Farewell," folk songs from the revolution era, as well as songs from former Soviet countries are also popular. For instance, "Bella Ciao," the song of an Italian guerrilla and "The song of communist youth league members," from the former Soviet Union were also once popular choices.

Modern youth have different tastes in graduation songs. The stirring songs evocative of the marches of a bygone era have given way to soulful pop songs.

Wan Yuxuan, a 23-year-old graduate, said his favorite graduation song is "Those Flowers" by singer Pu Shu. "It has light but beautiful sorrow, and a little regret due to being apart from his best friends and his lover," he said.

Li Jing, 22, said her favorite is "Ten Years" which is sung by Hong Kong singer Eason Chan. "This song is more fashionable, and has a catchy melody," she said.

Recently China Central Television (CCTV) launched the TV show project Graduation Songs, a special musical gala aimed at graduates. The show has given graduation songs a new lease on life, and renewed interest in their significance as milestone, for young people. The program featured graduates from eight different universities. In the show, they recreated classic songs and competed with each other to put on the best performance.

Zhang Jing, the secretary in charge of publicity at the Communist Youth League, said this program aims to reinvigorate those famous songs, which would help both the participants and audiences to understand their beauty.

"2012 is the first year that large numbers of the post-90s generation will graduate from college," he said. "This program will help present their spirit to a generation with lofty goals, great creativity, and high moral standards."