On May 1, 1935, "China Daily" published this song, and the film "Children of the Storm" premiered. The theme song immediately spread throughout the country and became a war song calling on the people to rise up against the Japanese invaders. In 1940, the famous American singer Robertson announced at a concert: "Tonight I will sing a Chinese song, dedicated to the fighting Chinese people!" He sang the song in Chinese and English with a deep and powerful bass. Later, the song was recorded into a record and soon spread among overseas Chinese and progressive people. In 1944, the U.S. State Department proposed to perform music from various countries on the United Nations Victory Day, and "March of the Volunteers" was performed as a representative work of Chinese music.

On September 27, 1949, at the first plenary session of the CPPCC National Committee, the famous painter Xu Beihong first proposed the proposal to replace the national anthem with "March of the Volunteers", which was approved by the conference. On December 4, 1982, the fifth session of the Fifth National People's Congress passed a resolution confirming this song as the official national anthem.