China’s flag, formally the National Flag of the People’s Republic of China and also known as the Five-star Red Flag, is a Chinese red field with five golden stars in the canton (top corner closest to the flagpole). One enormous star is surrounded by four lesser stars in a semicircle pointing towards the fly (the side farthest from the flag pole). It has been China’s national flag since the People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949.
The red represents the Chinese Communist Revolution, while the five stars and their relationships represent the Chinese people’s unity under the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership (CCP). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) raised the flag for the first time on a pole overlooking Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949, at a ceremony announcing the People’s Republic of China.
- Early Flags
The previous Chinese flag was the “Yellow Dragon Flag,” which was used by the Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty, from 1862 until the monarchy was overthrown during the Xinhai Revolution. The dynasty adopted a rectangular version of the dragon flag in 1889, replacing the triangular form adopted in 1862.
- Republic of China
The “Blue Sky with a White Sun flag” (; qngtin báir q) designed by Lu Haodong, a martyr of the Xinhai Revolution, inspired the canton (top corner on the hoist side). On February 21, 1895, he presented his plan for the revolutionary army at the opening of the Society for Regenerating China, an anti-Qing organization in Hong Kong. This design was later chosen as the KMT party flag as well as the Republic of China’s Coat of Arms. Sun Yat-sen added the “red Earth” part to the flag in the winter of 1906, giving it its current appearance. According to George Yeo, Singapore’s then-Foreign Minister at the time, Teo Eng Hock and his wife sewed the Blue Sky with a White Sun flag in the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall (previously known as the “Sun Yat Sen Villa”) in Singapore. The proposed design consisted of ten stripes with the Kuomintang flag in the canton, which was similar to the flags of the United States, Malaysia, and Liberia.
The numerous revolutionary troops carried distinct flags during the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, which hailed the Republic. The “Blue Sky with a White Sun” flag of Lu Hao-tung was used in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces. A flag with 18 yellow stars was flown in Wuhan to reflect the 18 administrative divisions that existed at the time. A “Five-Colored Flag” (; w sè q) (Five Races Under One Union flag) was used in Shanghai and northern China, with five horizontal stripes signifying China’s five primary nationalities: Han (red), Manchu (yellow), Mongol (blue), Hui (white), and Tibetan (tibetan) (black).
Sun Yat-sen established a government-in-exile in Tokyo when President Yuan Shikai took dictatorial powers in 1913 by dissolving the National Assembly and outlawed the KMT. He used the present flag as the national ROC flag. When the KMT founded a competing administration in Guangzhou in 1917, he continued to use this design. After the successful Northern Expedition that deposed the Beijing government on December 17, 1928, the modern flag was made the official national flag, however the Five-Colored Flag was still used by locals in an unofficial capacity. One explanation for the disparity in usage was persistent regional biases maintained by authorities and inhabitants of northern China, who valued the Five-Colored Flag over southerners like Sun Yat-sen, who were Cantonese/Hakka.
Mao Zedong’s communist forces created the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland and chose their own national flag. The Legislative Yuan promulgated the National Emblem and National Flag of the Republic of China Act (; Zhnghuá Mnguó guóhu guóqf) on October 23, 1954, to establish the size, measure, ratio, production, and management of the flag.
