A surprisingly rare Red Guard armband dating from China's Cultural Revolution.
This is a cotton Red Guard's armband which has been framed with a companion flag which bears both a stylized portrait of Mao Zedong and a Chinese inscription. The Red Guards were paramilitary units of radical university and high-school students formed during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, was a response to Mao Zedong's call to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese Communist Party, and by extension China itself.

During this era the Red Guards made placards, banners and flags and began wearing red armbands, scarves and pins and carrying the infamous Little Red Book. As evidenced by the flag, the students also evolved a cult of Mao, and his image often graced these items.

While red flags became ubiquitous throughout China during the Cultural Revolution; inscribed paramilitary Red Guard flags bearing Mao's image are less common. This flag is dated to 1968, when the Red Guards undertook a massive campaign aimed at promoting the already-adored Mao Zedong to god-like status; wherein Mao's thought became the operative guide to all things in China. The power of the Red Guards eventually surpassed that of the army, local police authorities, and the law in general. China's traditional arts and ideas were ignored, with praise for Mao being practiced instead. The movement, however, was not confined nor directed by a central organization, and many rival Red Guard groups were formed.

The year 1968 was also the commencement of the 'Down to the Countryside' program when Mao ordered the Red Guards into mountainous areas or farming villages; ostensibly so that they could learn from the workers and farmers; but, in reality to quell unrest and to remove the embarrassment of the early Cultural Revolution from sight because of their disruption of industrial production and urban life. Eventually both the Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution would dissipate.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was actually a struggle for power within the Communist Party of China (CPC) that manifested into wide-scale social, political, and economic chaos, which grew to push large sections of Chinese society and eventually the PRC itself to the brink of civil war. Since it permeated every aspect of the culture, China was literally awash in millions of posters, wall hangings, Mao statues, ceramics, pins and Little Red Books. However, both flags and armbands from this period are less common, and few seem to have reached the west thus increasing the rarity of armbands like this one. This is a companion piece to ZFC0753, a Red Guards Flag.

Chinese inscription, "Proletarian revolutionary rebels' great unified

Command center

City of Tianjin Copper Electrolysis Plant, Number __."

Exhibition History:

University of California - Santa Cruz
Board of Councilors Meeting, Rare Flags Exhibit
Santa Cruz, CA
7 June 2012

ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed

Provenance:
• Peoples Liberation Army Unit 8706, Beijing, China, 1968.
• Acquired by Xi Jim Wu, Artesia, CA.
• Purchased via Internet Auction by Carl Zaricor for Zaricor Flag Collection, 2004.


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