Red Guards Flag - Number 1 Wholesale Department.
This is a red flag with yellow Chinese characters that translate into: "Number 1 Wholesale Department, Cultural Products Company, City of Beijing" and it was used by the Red Guards at that facility. 'Cultural Products' generally referred to paper goods and educational supplies, which were vital commodities for the Red Guards to distribute during the Cultural Revolution that saw a decade of turmoil in Communist China as the Chinese Communist Party brought the nation close to civil war as it sought to revitalize itself.
This is a typical Red Guards flag. The Red Guards were groups of radical young people who students evolved as a cult of Mao as they seized control of many of China's institutions. They made signs, posters, banners and flags and wore red armbands, scarves and pins and carried the infamous Little Red Book as they swept across China between 1966 and 1976.
Provenance: Acquired in 2007 by purchase in China.
ZFC Important Flag
Sources:
Flag Translation by Prof. Benjamin L. Read, Politics Department - University of California Santa Cruz, letter of 17 February 2012, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.
Cultural Revolution, Wikipedia, 11 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
Red Guards, Wikipedia, 11 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_%28China%29
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
