China Beida University Red Rebel Group Flag.
This red cotton flag was used by the Red Guards at Beida University. The flag's dark golden Chinese characters translate into: "Beida [Beijing] University Red Rebel Group." Beida University was the colloquial Chinese name for the university that was established in 1898 as the Imperial Chinese University in Peking.

This flag is likely a very early Red Guard flag as some of the first actions of the Red Guard rebels occurred at Peking University in 1966. So radical and vociferous were the demonstrations of the student "rebels", that all education was terminated from 1966 to 1970.

Although the City of Peking abandoned the Romanized phonetic spelling in 1979 in favor of the Pinyin spelling Beijing, Peking University has chosen to retain their old traditional appellation of "Peking University" and is still utilizes its local nickname of Běijīng Dàxué, which is locally shortened to "Beida".

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

Peking University, Wikipedia, 11 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_University

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