National Symbols
National Designation
The founding father of the ROC, Sun Yat-sen, first proposed the name “Republic of China” at the first official meeting of the Tongmeng Hui (Revolutionary Alliance) in Tokyo in 1905. Sun said, “It was not until that day in autumn in 1905 when outstanding individuals of the entire country gathered to found the Tongmeng Hui in Tokyo that I came to believe the great revolutionary task could indeed be achieved. Only at this point did I dare to propose the national designation of ‘Republic of China’ and announce it to the members of our party, so that each could return to his respective province and proclaim the message of the revolution and disseminate the ideas behind the founding of the Republic of China.”
Sun’s suggestion was officially adopted when the Provincial Assembly was established in 1912.
ROC Year Designations
In official and most ordinary usages, years in the ROC are calculated from the year of the Republic’s founding, 1912. Thus, 1912 was referred to as “the first year of the Republic of China,” and 2009 is “the 98th year of the Republic of China,” and so on. This is a continuation of the millennia-old system in China of beginning new year designations with the beginning of a new era, which once coincided with the ascension of a new emperor.
National Anthem
The words of the ROC national anthem were first delivered as an exhortation by Sun Yat-sen at the opening ceremony of the Whampoa Military Academy on June 16, 1924. This exhortation was designated as the Kuomintang’s (KMT) party song in 1928, after which the KMT publicly solicited contributions for a tune to fit the words. A melody by Cheng Mao-yun was selected out of those submitted by 139 contenders. (See page 4 for both lyrics and melody.)
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Ministry of Education held two separate competitions for the lyrics for the national anthem, using the KMT party song in the meantime as a temporary national anthem of the ROC starting in 1937.
The anthem first declares the Three Principles of the People to be the foundation of the nation and a guide to a world commonwealth of peace and harmony; and then calls upon the people to be brave, earnest and faithful in striving to fulfill that goal.
National Flag
National flag
The “white sun in a blue sky” portion of the ROC’s national flag was originally designed by Lu Hao-tung, a martyr of the Chinese revolution. Lu presented his design in a meeting of the Xingzhong Hui (Society for Regenerating China) in Hong Kong on February 21, 1895. It was redesigned to include a crimson background during the years just prior to the revolution. This later design is still used today as the national emblem.
Before the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, the revolutionary armies in different provinces had different flags: the one used in the Wuhan area had 18 yellow stars, representing the 18 administrative divisions of China at the time; the Shanghai army adopted a five-color flag of red, yellow, blue, white and black, representing the five main ethnic groups of China; and Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces used the “white sun in a blue sky.”
When the Provisional Government was first established, the five-color flag was adopted as the national flag, the 18-star flag was used by the army, and the “white sun in a blue sky” by the navy. The current ROC national flag was officially adopted on May 5, 1921.
The 12 points of the white sun in the emblem represent the Chinese conceptualization of a day’s being divided into 12 two-hour periods, which symbolizing unceasing progress. At one level, the three colors of blue, white and crimson stand for the Three Principles of the People: nationalism, democracy and social well-being. At another level, the colors embody qualities that evoke other concepts enumerated in the Three Principles: the blue signifies brightness, purity and freedom, and thus a government that is of the people; the white, honesty, selflessness and equality, and thus a government that is by the people; and the crimson, sacrifice, bloodshed and brotherly love, thus a government that is for the people.
National Flower
National flower
The plum blossom, Prunus mei, was officially designated by the ROC Executive Yuan to be the national flower on July 21, 1964. The plum blossom, which produces shades of pink and white and gives off a delicate fragrance, has great symbolic value for the Chinese people because of its resilience during the harsh winter. The triple grouping of stamens (one long and two short) represents Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People, while the five petals symbolize the five branches of the ROC government.