PRC Flags Wave in Chinatown
NCM Online, Franz Schurmann, Posted: Jun 18, 2002
From 1950 till early May this year people walking through any Chinatown in the US saw only two national flags, the American and that of the Republic of China, a white sun on a blue field. Until February 1972 when President Nixon visited the People's Republic of China (PRC) in his famous "breakthrough" no PRC flag was to be seen in any Chinatown. Yet, surprisingly, even afterwards, the flag with five stars on a red field rarely if ever was hoisted in any Chinatown.
But in the June 3 issue of "The China Press" (TCP) carried on its front page a commentary by its gifted writer Sha-Meng (a pseudonym in Chinese journalistic tradition) that was based on the sudden appearance of the PRC flag in San Francisco and New York Chinatowns. These two are the main Chinatowns in the US and set the tone for all others. It started when San Francisco's South China Benevolent Association raised the PRC flag on its roof on May 11. As Sha-Meng wrote this started a chain reaction that spread in Chinatown. On June 1 the South China Nine Rivers Charitable Association raised the PRC flag on its roof.
The two associations are part of a General Association of the "three counties." These three counties are in Guangdong Province from which in 1849 the earliest Chinese settlers in the Bay Area came. These associations are widely regarded as the most traditional in the Overseas Chinese world of some 50 to 60 million people. For decades the General Association was the most conservative among its member associations and enforced its conservatism. But this time when the flag-raising issue was presented for discussion members spoke freely. And when the TCP interviewed the head of the General Association the chairman said "in America we have the right of choice."
That statement was enough for Sha-Meng to call his commentary "Finally people are showing their desire for [Mainland-Taiwan] reunification."
The showing of the PRC flag started earlier in New York. On April 27 when soon-to-become China's leader Hu Jintao visited New York three family associations unfurled the PRC flag. But it was the San Francisco associations that turned "choice" into a "chain-reaction."
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