China - Cultural Revolution Flag of Faction 973.
This is a Red Guards flag from the Cultural Revolution, a period of internal turmoil inside China that lasted from 1966 to 1976. The Red Guards were paramilitary units of radical students, which were formed during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or Cultural Revolution. It was the response to Mao Zedong's call to revitalize the revolutionary spirit, to implement a "permanent revolution," of the Chinese Communist Party, and by extension China itself. This flag is the Cultural Revolution color of Faction 973 of the Revolutionary Rebel Headquarters, Changshu, Jiangsu.
Changshu is an important city in the Yangtze River delta, which became popular during the Cultural Revolution for its production of one of the more famous of "Modern Plays," the Peking, Sha Jia Bang. Sha Jia Bang was a small township in Jiangsu, and served as the setting for a story about the anti-Japanese resistance in China during WWII. During the Cultural Revolution, the play became popular as a diversion in a chaotic time; not necessarily for its political propaganda, but perhaps because there was a vestige of culture in it; something else to do in a time when intellectuals, artists, free thinkers and teachers were being murdered en masse.
Red flags like this were ubiquitous during the Cultural Revolution, but surviving examples with logos and unit designations are scarce, and those with identifying locales like this example are rare. The white strip along the hoist contains black Chinese inscription, "973 Revolutionary rebel faction headquarters, Changshu, Jiangsu"
Provenance: Acquired by purchase in China in 2004.
ZFC Collectible Flag
Sources:
Changshu, Wikipedia, 9 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changshu
Flag Translation by Prof. Benjamin L. Read, Politics Department - University of California Santa Cruz, letter of 17 February 2012, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives
Changshu, Jiangsu.NET, 9 May 2012, from: http://www.jiangsu.net/city/city.php?name=changshu
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
