This article is about the flag of the People's Republic of China since its creation in 1949. For the flag of the Republic of China, commonly known as the flag of Taiwan, seeFlag of the Republic of China. For other uses, seeFlag of China (disambiguation).
Thenational flag of the People's Republic of China, also known as theFive-star Red Flag,[1] is aChinese red field with five goldenstarscharged at thecanton. The design features one large star, with four smaller stars in an arc set off towards the fly.
The first national flag of China was the "Yellow Dragon Flag" used by theQing dynasty — the lastimperial dynasty in Chinese history — from 1862 until the overthrow of the monarchy during the1911 Revolution.[3] The flag that was adopted in 1862 was triangular, but the dynasty adopted a rectangular version of the dragon flag in 1889.
During theWuchang Uprising in 1911 that heralded the Republic, the various revolutionary armies had different flags. Lu Hao-tung's "Blue Sky with a White Sun" flag was used in the provinces ofGuangdong,Guangxi,Yunnan, andGuizhou. InWuhan, a flag with 18 yellow stars was used to represent the 18 administrative divisions at the time. InShanghai and northern China, a "Five-Colored Flag" (五色旗;wǔ sè qí) (Five Races Under One Union flag) was used of five horizontal stripes representing the five majornationalities of China: theHan (red), theManchu (yellow), theMongol (blue), theHui (white), and theTibetan (black).[6]
When the government of theRepublic of China was established on 1 January 1912, the "Five-Colored Flag" was selected by the provisional Senate as the national flag. The "18-Star Flag" was adopted by the army[7] and the modern flag was adopted as a naval ensign.[8] Sun Yat-sen, however, did not consider the five-colored flag appropriate, reasoning that horizontal order implied a hierarchy or class like that which existed during dynastic times.[citation needed]
After PresidentYuan Shikai assumeddictatorial powers in 1913 by dissolving theNational Assembly and outlawing the KMT, Sun Yat-sen established a government-in-exile inTokyo and employed the modern flag as the national ROC flag. He continued using this design when the KMT established arival government inGuangzhou in 1917. The modern flag was made the official national flag on 17 December 1928 after theNorthern Expedition that overthrew the Beijing government, though the Five-Colored Flag still continued to be used by locals in an unofficial capacity. One reason for this discrepancy in use was lingering regional biases held by officials and citizens of northern China, who favored the Five-Colored Flag, against southerners such as theCantonese/Hakka Sun Yat-sen.[citation needed]
Duringthe Second Sino-Japanese War, the invadingJapanese established avariety of puppet governments using several flag designs. The "Reform Government", established in March 1938 inNanjing, employed the Five-Colored Flag. WhenWang Jingwei was slated to take over theJapanese-installed government in Nanjing in 1940, he demanded to use the modern flag as a means to challenge the authority of theNationalist Government inChongqing underChiang Kai-shek and position himself as the rightful successor to Sun Yat-sen. However, the Japanese preferred the Five-Colored flag. As a compromise, the Japanese suggested adding a triangular yellow pennant on top with the slogan "Peace, Anticommunism, National Construction" (和平反共建國;Hépíng fǎngòng jiàn guó) in black, but this was rejected by Wang. In the end, Wang and the Japanese agreed that the yellow banner was to be used outdoors only until 1943, when the banner was abandoned, leaving two rival governments with the same flag, each claiming to be the legitimate national government of China.[9]
After theChinese Civil War in 1949, the ROC government led by Chiang Kai-shek relocated its government and its institutions to the island ofTaiwan. On themainland, CCP forces ofMao Zedong established thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) and adopted their own national flag. On 23 October 1954, the National Emblem and National Flag of the Republic of China Act (中華民國國徽國旗法;Zhōnghuá Mínguó guóhuī guóqífǎ) was promulgated by theLegislative Yuan to specify the size, measure, ratio, production, and management of the flag.[10]
Proposed designs of the Blue Sky, White Sun and Wholly Red Earth Flag
Teo Eng Hock and his wife's proposal 1 for the ROC flag
Proposal 2 for the ROC flag.
Proposal 3 for the ROC flag, later adopted as the Flag of the Republic of China Army
Proposal 4 for the ROC flag, later officially adopted as the national flag
People's Republic of China
On 4 July 1949, the sixth working group of thePreparatory Committee of the New Political Consultative Conference created a notice to submit designs for the national flag. After subsequent revisions, the notice was published in the papersPeople's Daily,Beiping Liberation News,Xinmin News,Dazhong Daily,Guangming Daily,Jinbu Daily andTianjin Daily during the period 15–26 July.[11] The list of requirements for the national flag were also posted in the notice:
Chinese characteristics (geography, nationality, history, culture, etc.);
Power characteristics (people's democratic government, led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance);
The shape should be rectangular and the length-breadth ratio should be 3:2;
The color should mainly be bright red[12] (an early draft of the notice had the color as dark red, but this was changed to bright red byZhou Enlai).[13]
Zeng Liansong, a citizen fromWenzhou,Zhejiang, was working in Shanghai when the announcement came out; he wanted to create a flag design to express his patriotic enthusiasm for the new country. In the middle of July, he sat down in his attic over the course of several nights to come up with designs. His inspiration for the current design came from observing how stars shine in the night sky. He thusly thought of a Chinese proverb, "longing for the stars, longing for the moon" (盼星星盼月亮,pàn xīngxīng pàn yuèliàng), which shows yearning. He viewed the CCP as the great savior (大救星,dà jiùxīng "great saving star") of the Chinese people, symbolized by the flag's largest star. The idea for four small stars came from "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship", a speech by Mao Zedong, which defined the Chinese people as consisting of foursocial classes, also traditionally referred to in Asian cultures as thefour occupations (士農工商,shì nóng gōng shāng) ("Scholars, Peasants, Workers, Merchants"). The color yellow implies that China belongs to the Chinese people, a "yellow race".[13] After working out the details of the placement of the stars and their sizes (he had tried to put all of the stars in the center, but thought this too dull), he sent his "Five Stars on a Field of Red" (紅地五星旗,hóng dì wǔxīng qí) design to the committee in the middle of August.[2][13]
By 20 August, between 2,992[14] and 3,012[15] designs had been sent to the flag committee,[16] including input from committee members themselves such asGuo Moruo andTan Kah Kee.[14] From 16 to 20 August, the designs were viewed at theBeijing Hotel and culled down to a list of 38.[2][11] These designs are collected into a book namedA Reference of National Flag Designs (國旗圖案參考資料). This book was then submitted to the newly establishedChinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) for further discussion. However, Zeng's design was not included untilTian Han nominated it again.[17]
The flag of the People's Republic of China is raised for the first time on 1 October 1949
On the morning of 23 September, the representatives of the CPPCC discussed the national flags, but came to no conclusion. Some disliked the symbolism which Zeng attached to the four smaller stars, and said it should not include the bourgeoisie. The design Mao and others liked had a giant golden star in the corner on a red flag that was charged with a golden horizontal bar. But this design was strongly opposed byZhang Zhizhong, who saw the golden bar as symbolizing China being divided into two.[18] That night, Peng Guanghan (彭光涵) recommended Zeng's design to Zhou Enlai. Zhou was satisfied with it and asked for the creation of a larger copy of the design. Tan Kah Kee also gave his advice to Mao and Zhou that the power characteristics take precedence over Chinese geography characteristics, so there was no need to insist on the golden bar that symbolized theYellow River. Two days later, Mao had a meeting in his office about the flag. He persuaded everyone to adopt Zeng's design, with some slight modifications.[19] According to earlier discussions at the Beijing Hotel, thehammer and sickle from Zeng's original design was removed since it was similar to theflag of the Soviet Union.[17] On 27 September 1949, Zeng's modified design was selected unanimously by the First Plenary Session of CPPCC, which changed the flag's name to "Five-star Red Flag".[2][20]
On 29 September, the new flag was published in thePeople's Daily, so the design could be copied by other local authorities.[21] The flag was officially unveiled and raised for the first time by Mao Zedong in Beijing'sTiananmen Square on 1 October 1949, at the formalannouncement of thePeople's Republic of China. The first flag flown over Tiananmen Square was sewn together by Zhao Wenrui (赵文瑞), a seamstress who finished the task around 1pm on 30 September.[22] Zeng had a hard time believing that his design was picked, due to the missing hammer and sickle from the giant star. However, he was officially congratulated by the General Office of the Central People's Government as the designer of the flag and received 5 million yuan for his work.[13][23]
The construction sheet for the national flag was published on 28 September 1949 by an order from the Presidium of the First Plenary Session of the CPPCC.[28] The information can also be found in the document "GB 12982-2004: National flag" that was released by theStandardization Administration of China.[29]
Construction sheet
Standard
The flag is split into 4 sections, with the top hoist part of the flag being a grid of 15 by 10 units.
The center of the biggest star is placed at 5 units from the hoist and 5 units from the top of the flag; the diameter of the biggest star'scircumscribed circle is 6 units.
Of the 4 smaller stars, the first one is centered 2 units from the top of the flag, 10 units from the hoist; the second one is centered 4 units from the top of the flag and 12 units from the hoist; the third one is centered 7 units from the top of the flag and 12 units from the hoist; the fourth one is centered 9 units from the top of the flag and 10 units from the hoist.
The diameter of each small star's circumscribed circle is 2 units. Each of the top points of the 4 smaller stars are rotated such that they point towards the center of the larger star.[30]
TheNational Flag Law of the People's Republic of China notes five possible sizes that could be made for the national flag.[31] According to Article 4 of the National Flag Law, people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government are directed to authorize companies to make any copy of the national flag.[28] Besides five official sizes for flying on flagpoles, there are another four smaller sizes for other purposes, such as decoration on cars or display in meeting rooms.[32]
Size
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Length × width (cm)
288 × 192
240 × 160
192 × 128
144 × 96
96 × 64
66 × 44
45 × 30
30 × 20
21 × 14
Colors
The colors of the national flag are stipulated in the document "GB 12983-2004: Standard Color Sample of the National Flag", and promulgated by the Standardization Administration of China. The colors are in specified inCIE 1964 xyY10 color space understandard illuminant D65.[33]
For computer display, the National Flag Law defers to "standard"PNG images posted on theNational People's Congress website.[34] The specific colors used, in thesRGB space of the PNG file, are:[35]
The Flag of China is represented as theUnicodeemoji sequenceU+1F1E8🇨REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER C andU+1F1F3🇳REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER N.[36]
Regulations
EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:
TheNational Flag Law of the People's Republic of China was passed by 14th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on 28 June 1990 and was enforced starting 1 October 1990. The law set regulations on how to make the Chinese flag, what it looks like, where it can be flown and how it can be flown. The law also stresses that the national flag is "the symbol and hallmark of the People's Republic of China" and that everyone "shall respect and care for the National Flag".[28]
Guidelines for flag display
Proper vertical display of the flag
The National Flag Law has made detailed regulations on places or institutions for raising the national flag. Specifically, it stipulates the flag must be hung daily at Tiananmen Square,Xinhuamen, theStanding Committee of the National People's Congress, theState Council, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, theSupreme People's Procuratorate, immigration agencies, ports, railway stations and otherports of entry, among other places. The flag should be hung at various departments of the State Council, the standing committees of local people's congresses at all levels, courts, and local committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference or property belonging to said places or institutions on working days. National flags should be raised in full-time schools except during vacations and Sundays.
Priority in processions
According to Article 15 of the National Flag Law, "the national flag, when raised or carried in a procession with another flag or flags, shall be in front of the other flag or flags." However, incidents violating the aforementioned provisions, such as the CCP flag leading the national flag, have occurred.
Folding the flag
Fold horizontally along the center.
Repeat, fold horizontally along the center.
Fold vertically along the center of the flag.
Repeat, fold vertically along the center of the flag.
Repeat, fold vertically along the center of the flag.
Flag desecration is prohibited in China. The penal code provides for imprisonment up to three years, criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights for "whoever desecrates the National Flag or theNational Emblem of the People's Republic of China by intentionally burning, mutilating, scrawling on, defiling or trampling upon it in a public place".[37] Some Taiwanese groups have burned the Chinese flag in protest of the PRC government.[38]
The regional flag (Hong Kong) displayed with the national flag
Due to an order passed by the CCP Central Committee General Office and General Office of the State Council, cities and provinces are no longer allowed to adopt their own symbols.[39] However, both of the Hong Kong andMacauSpecial Administrative Regions of China have their own special flags. The precise use of the SAR flags are regulated by laws passed by the National People's Congress.[40][41]
The Flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region features a stylized, white, five-petalBauhinia blakeana flower in the center of a red field. On each petal is a red star; they symbolise Hong Kong's status under China, while the overall flag design signifies the reestablished link between postcolonial Hong Kong and China while demonstrating the "One country, two systems" political principle applied to the region.[42][43] The flag of Hong Kong was adopted on 16 February 1990.[44] On 10 August 1996, it received formal approval from thePreparatory Committee, a group which advised the People's Republic of China (PRC) onHong Kong's transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the PRC in 1997.[40] The flag was first officially hoisted on 1 July 1997, in thehandover ceremony marking the transfer of sovereignty from theUnited Kingdom to China.[45]
The Regional flag of the Macau Special Administrative Region is "Macau green" with alotus flower above a stylized image of theGovernor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge and water in white, beneath an arc of five gold, five-pointed stars: one large star in the center of the arc and four smaller ones. The lotus was chosen as the floral emblem of Macau. The Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge is a bridge linking theMacau Peninsula and the island ofTaipa.[46] The bridge is one of the most recognizable landmarks of the territory. The water beneath the lotus and the bridge symbolize Macau's position as a port and its role played in the territory. The five five-pointed stars echo the design of the national flag, symbolizing the relationship Macau has with its mother country.[47] The design was chosen on 15 January 1993 by a committee that was drafting theBasic Law for the Macau SAR and was formally adopted by the Macau SAR Preparatory Committee on 16 January 1999.[48] The flag was first officially hoisted on 20 December 1999, in thehandover ceremony marking the transfer of sovereignty fromPortugal to China.[49]
There are nine flags that are used by thePeople's Liberation Army (PLA), as well as one used by thePeople's Armed Police. The main feature of these flags is a golden star at the top left corner and two Chinese characters "八一" to the right of the star, all placed on a red background. The characters "八一" (literally "eight one") pay homage to theevents on 1 August 1927 (8th month, 1st day); this was when the PLA was created by the CCP to start their rebellion against theKuomintang Government inNanchang.[50] The main flag of the PLA was created on 15 June 1949 by a decree issued from Mao.[51] The flag has a ratio of 5 by 4, which has a white sleeve measuring1⁄16 of the flag's length. For ceremonies, a PLA flag with golden fringe is placed on a pole with gold and red spiral stripes and topped with a golden finial and red tassel.[52] Each branch of the PLA, theGround Forces,Navy,Air Force,Rocket Force,Aerospace Force,Cyberspace Force,Information Support Force and theJoint Logistics Support Force, also have their own flags to use. In a 1992 order, the flags of the three branches were defined. The top5⁄8 of the flags is the same as the PLA flag; the bottom3⁄8 are occupied by the colors of the branches.[53] The flag of the Ground Forces has a forest green bar at the bottom, the naval ensign has stripes of blue and white at the bottom, the Air Force uses a sky blue bar and the Rocket Force uses a yellow bar at the bottom. The forest green represents the earth, the blue and white stripes represent the seas, the sky blue represents the air and the yellow represents the flare of missile launching.[54][55] On 10 January 2018, the People's Armed Police received a new flag following the design of the PLA branch flags with three olive stripes at the bottom.[56]
After theCCP Politburo wasfounded in 1921, various sections of the party made flags based on what theBolsheviks used, producing various designs and patterns. On 28 April 1942, the CCP issued a decree announcing current flag and the pattern it should follow.[57] The design was further defined in the CCP Constitution in 1996.[58] The flag has a red background with a golden hammer and sickle, the CCP emblem, at the top left corner.[59] The flag ratio is defined as two by three (24×36 units); the size of the emblem is eight units square, placed four units away from the hoist and three units away from the top of the flag.[58]
The flag of theCommunist Youth League of China was adopted on 4 May 1950. The design of the flag consists of the group emblem, a golden star surrounded by a ring of gold, charged on a red field. The construction of the flag consists of making the top hoist portion of the flag into twelve by eighteen units, placing the emblem in the middle of that rectangle. The radius of the emblem is four units.[60]
TheYoung Pioneers of China currently uses two flags. The first flag is for pioneer battalions. The length of this flag is 90 centimeters (35 in); its width,120 centimeters (47 in). A golden badge of the Young Pioneers is placed in the center of the flag. However, for a company, a second, modified flag is used. The flag has a length of 60 centimeters (24 in) and a width of 80 centimeters (31 in). A 20 centimeters (7.9 in) triangle is cut out of the fly edge of the flag and the golden emblem is shifted closer towards the hoist.[61]
The customs flag is the Chinese national flag with the emblem of customs at the lower right corner, which consists of a golden key and theCaduceus ofHermes, crossing each other. The current customs flag was officially adopted on 1 October 1953. The customs flag should be hung at the bow of the customs vessel.[62]
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^Article 9 of the National Flag Law of PRC: "Standard version of national flag image for online usage is released on the website of the National People's Congress and the Government of China. (网络使用的国旗图案标准版本在中国人大网和中国政府网上发布。)"
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