Last modified: 2020-07-31 by ian macdonald
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Editorial Note: Historically, when the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by the communist factions, the nationalist China Republic took residence in Taiwan beginning in 1949.
Taiwan has retained several flags of the Chinese
Republic in use prior to the establishment of the Republic of China in Taiwan:
It's improper to say "establishment in" here, because Taiwan
has been ruled under ROC since 1945, before 1949. It's better to say "retreat
to". Besides, "Chinese Republic" usually is equivalent to "Republic of China"
today, but officially, the former was the translation of Peking Government (or
Beiyang Government) and the later is the translation of KMT Government since
mid-1928. It's hardly to take the former to mean the period before the
establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the
later to mean only after Oct. 1, 1949.
Akira Oyo, 18 April 2014
The following changes are reflected by Grossen Flaggenbuch
[4] 1939-1941 and Flags of All Nations
1955 [5]. Confirmed by Ivan Sache and Jaume
Ollé in their messages.
The Chinese Nationalist gained control of the Government and some flag
changes were adopted. These included slight modifications of the Rank Flags
and a replacement of the quinta-color national flag which meant a change in the
Jack. The former naval ensign was up-graded to the
National Flag and the canton
or [KMT Flag] was chosen to replace the quinta-color
Jack.
With out proper verification, I can only say that I have been told that
these same rank flags are still in use by the now titled
Republic of China [Taiwan].
C. Eugene Baldwin, 10 December 1998
When Kuomintang (Nationalist) forces, which favoured the "Blue Sky, White
Sun, Whole Field Red" design, defeated the warlords and unified China in
1928, this flag (which remained the naval ensign) became the
national flag on land, and the canton of this flag
became the naval jack, in both cases replacing the
five-striped design.
Miles Li, 19 September 2007
Crampton's The Flags of the World [6]
has five pictures of pre-revolutionary Chinese flags taken from a collection
of cigarette cards. He stated that the flags were used in pre-revolution
China and are still in use.
Jorge Candeias, 30 March 1998
The 1995 recapitulative issue of the 1990 Album des pavillons nationaux et des marques distinctives des états et des principales organisations internationales [7] lists these flags for Taiwan (different from Album 2000 [8]) and shown in Flaggenbuch [4].
Flags shown in Flaggenbuch [4]:
Željko Heimer, 6-10 February 2003
During the 1920s, China was controlled by a number of regional warlords.
The faction loyal to Dr Sun Yat-Sen (the founder of the republic in
1911) and Chiang Kai-Shek (Sun's successor) occupied southern China,
and had to fight a civil war in order to unify the nation. In order
to distinguish itself in battle, Chiang's army adopted a new range of
flags:
Army Officers' College: Red, with a white sun on a blue disc in the
centre. (Similar to Taiwan President's Flag)
Army: Red, with a white sun on a blue rectangle in the centre. (Same
as Taiwan Army Flag)
Commander-in-chief: Army flag with white border (10% of the width
of the army flag) on all sides except the hoist; a shorter vertical
white strip, bearing the Chinese title 'Nationalist Revolutionary Army
Commander-in-Chief' in black, was sewn into the red field near the hoist.
Above the flag a small white triangular pennon (25% of the width of
the army flag) bearing the Chinese letter for 'Chief' in red; proportion
of the pennon 2:3. Both flags sewn onto one piece of white sleeve. This
flag was used by Chiang Kai-Shek between 1926 and 1928. (Compare this
with the modified, 1953 version of Commander-in-chief flag in page 110
of Whitney Smith's Flags Through the Ages and Across the World
[9])
After the civil war ended in 1928 the Nationalist army continued
to use the Army flag and the Army Officers' College flag, at first in
mainland China, then in Taiwan, to this very day.
In addition, generals of Chiang's army had their own flags, their
designs varied according to the taste of individual general. Generally
these were blue flags, often 'double flags' with a small flag above
a larger one. Apart from the mandatory white sun, these flags featured
a variety of Chinese words - title of office, the word 'command', even
the general's surname - a feature thought to be characteristic of generals'
flags in ancient China.
Miles Li, 10 January 2000, 11 January 2000
You will notice that the flag (shown in the album Die Welt in Bildern Album 7 has a blue and white
flag-pole. That's strange because all the other flags in the album are depicted
with brownish, i.e. wooden in natural colour, flag-poles.
Source: Die Welt in Bildern Album 7: Flaggen der Welt, aussereuropäische
Staaten, edited between 1928 and 1932 according to the international boundaries
in the included map of the world. The flag is depicted in on p.3, image no.215.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 August 2008
Surprisingly, the Republic of China (ROC) National Flag and Emblem Act of 1928 did not
mention the colour of the flagpole (other than a red ball finial,
which understandably was almost universally ignored, but the ROC
National Flag and Emblem Act of 1954 did specify a white flagpole with
golden-yellow ball finial.
Miles Li, 11 August 2008
1 Royal Navy handbook of signalling, 1913, FOTW
bibliographic code: [g9b13]
2 Jane's Fighting Ships, FOTW bibliographic code:
[jfs]
3 National Geographic Magazine, October 1917,
FOTW bibliographic code: [gmc17]
4 Flaggenbuch (Flg.B.). Bearbeitet und herausgegeben
vom Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine. Abgesclossen am 1. December 1939,
FOTW bibliographic code: [neu39]
5 Flags of all nations (B.R. 20(1). Volume I. National
Flags and Ensigns), 1955, FOTW bibliographic code:
[hms55]
6 Flags of the World. The contributor did not
cite an edition, but likely either Barraclough and Crampton 1978 (FOTW
bibliographic code [c2b78], or Barraclough
and Crampton 1981 (FOTW bibliographic code
[c2b81].
7 Correction récapitulative N°1 numéro 1 à l'Album
des Pavillons nationaux et des Marques distinctives, 1995, FOTW
bibliographic code: [pie95]
8 Album des pavillons nationaux et des marques
distinctives, 2000, FOTW bibliographic code:
[pay00]
9 Flags Through the Ages and Across the World,
1975, FOTW bibliographic code: [smi75b]
