Zeng Liansong

Early Life

Zeng Liansong was born on 17 December 1917 in Ruian, Zhejiang. He attended Ruian County Primary School and Ruian County Junior Middle School, entered the senior-high division of Jiangsu Provincial Nanjing High School in 1933, and took part in the December Ninth Movement of 1935. In 1936 he enrolled in the economics department of the National Central University's Faculty of Law; after the university relocated to Chongqing's Shapingba district following the outbreak of war with Japan, he secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party in May 1938 and served as secretary of the university's underground Party branch. Around 1940, amid intensified Nationalist 'White Terror,' he lost contact with the Party organisation. After graduating, he returned to Ruian to teach history at a local middle school. In 1947 he was invited to Shanghai, where he joined the 'Modern Economic Newsletter Agency' (现代经济通讯社), a clandestine outfit run by the CCP underground on Huashan Road, working as its secretary and editor.

Designing the National Flag

In June 1949, Mao Zedong published 'On the People's Democratic Dictatorship,' arguing that the 'people' at that stage of the revolution comprised four classes -- workers, peasants, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie -- which became the direct theoretical basis for Zeng's flag design. That July, the CPPCC Preparatory Committee issued a nationwide call for national flag designs; Zeng entered as an ordinary member of the public, spending about a month working on his design in the attic of his home before mailing his submission (entry no. 32) in mid-August. His design featured a red field with one large and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars in the upper left corner. The large star represented the Communist Party of China; the four smaller stars represented the four classes named above, each oriented with one point directed towards the centre of the large star, symbolising the unity of all classes under Party leadership.

Selection and Modification

From 2,992 entries nationwide, Zeng's design was initially left off the shortlist; CPPCC preparatory committee member Peng Guanghan noticed the submission and recommended it to Zhou Enlai, who endorsed it, bringing it into the final round of discussion. Some committee members also objected to the inclusion of the 'national bourgeoisie' among the four classes represented by the smaller stars, but the design was ultimately approved. The committee chaired by Mao Zedong made one significant modification: the original design included a hammer and sickle within the large star, which was removed on the grounds that it too closely resembled Soviet iconography. On 27 September 1949, the CPPCC First Plenary Session formally adopted the design as the national flag of the People's Republic of China. That October, Zeng was awarded five million yuan (in pre-reform currency, roughly 500 yuan after the 1955 currency reform) and invited to Beijing to attend the National Day celebrations.

Cultural Revolution and Later Life

During the 1957 Anti-Rightist Campaign, he was flagged for scrutiny after inscribing a Lenin quotation -- 'fewer fine words, more real work' -- on a teacup; during the Cultural Revolution he was branded a 'traitor' and a 'filial son of the landlord-bourgeoisie,' subjected to public struggle sessions and having his home ransacked, and sent to a 'May Seventh Cadre School' for labour re-education. After several applications, he was readmitted to the Party in November 1985, nearly thirty-six years after losing contact with the organisation around 1940. After 1949 he worked for decades within Shanghai's supply and marketing cooperative system, holding posts at the East China Supply and Marketing Cooperative Administration, the Shanghai Sundry Goods Company, and the Shanghai Local Products and Sundry Goods Company; from 1978 he served as deputy general manager of the Shanghai Sundry Goods Company and was elected a member of the Shanghai Municipal CPPCC. He was again invited to Beijing to attend the National Day celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the PRC in 1979. Zeng died in Shanghai on 19 October 1999, at the age of eighty-two (by traditional reckoning).