Last modified: 2020-07-31 by ian macdonald
Keywords: hainan | sword: crossed (two) |
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The chart Flags of Aspirant Peoples shows the following: 136.
"Hainan (Li and Miao, 1943-1949) - South China - War flag)."
Horizontal green -red, with two crossed "swords".
Li and Miao are the two most important ethnic minorities in the island of
Hainan. Li (ca 1,000,000 of people) belong to the Thai linguistic group. Miao
belong to the Miao-Yao linguistic group and are also scattered throughout Laos,
Viet-Nam and Thailand. Hainan was known as the "tropical Siberia",
because it has been a place of exile since the Tang dynasty.
Ivan Sache, 16 September 1999
The flags of
Kachin Independence Organization and that of
Hainan bear striking resemblance, but obviously are not identical. The
difference lies in the handles of the swords (machetes ?) and the size of the
device being displayed on the respective flags. I have no doubts about the
Kachin flag as I have a photographic evidence of it, but am eager to hear the
opinion of my peers on the subject of Hainan flag.
Besides the source quoted by Ivan, there is also an image of it shown at:
http://blog.pcpop.com/picture/0002481982-1.html where it is identified as a
flag of the Qiong Ya Autonomous Government of 1940s.
"Qiong Ya" being "Hainan" leaves no doubt what that flag is supposed to
represent, but IMVHO, it represents only the Li (Hlai) people, who inhabit the
southern half of the island, and has not much (if anything) to do with the Miao
people of the northern Hainan.
The pro-communist Li formed the clandestine Qiongya Autonomous Government even
before the Japanese invasion and after it, their military arm, Qiongya
Workers-Peasant Revolutionary Army fought the invaders (Li suffered enormous
loses - 1/3 of the male population was killed by the Japanese) and later
facilitated, to a large degree, the Communist takeover of the island in 1950
from the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek.
The leader of Qiongya Autonomous Government and Qiongya Workers -Peasant
Revolutionary Army (known also as Qiongya Column) was Feng Baiju: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Baiju>
Chrystian Kretowicz, 24 July 2009