Following the triumph of the Chinese Civil War, the new Chinese Communist Party government gave the task of finding a national emblem and flag to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the June of 1949. The committee set out by holding a competition to attract designs and ideas from across the country.
The winning design was created by a prominent Chinese architect Liang Sicheng assisted by his wife, Lin Huiyin, a recognized artist, poet and architect in her own right. He started his academic education at the Tsinghua College in 1915 and in 1924, together with his wife, left for the United States where they studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. They returned to China in 1928 and almost two decades later (in 1947), he received a honourary doctorate from Princeton University.
The Emblem of China embodies four aspects of Chinese history and national spirit: Tiananmen, the stars of the national flag, the cog-wheel and sheaves of grain and rice. The emblem is a circle of red with a gold outer border, the same colours used in the national flag. The red represents the spirit of the revolution and the gold the history and culture of the people and the dawn of a new era. The Tiananmen Gate (the entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing's Tiananmen Square) is symbolic of the May Fourth Movement.
On May 4, 1919 thousands of Beijing students demonstrated to protest the government's weak stand at the Treaty of Versailles. The demonstrations escalated to a nationwide strike and civil disobedience. Viewed as a fight against imperialism and feudalism, the events of May 4 became a turning point in Chinese social and political history. Tiananmen Square is also where the inauguration of the People's Republic of China took place on October 1, 1949.
The five gold stars on the emblem is the same design used in the national flag. The larger five pointed star signifies the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the four smaller stars the unity of the people under the leadership of the CPC. (There are a number of interpretations regarding the symbology of the four smaller stars. You can read more about this in Flags of China.)
The cogs and the sheaves of wheat and rice, representing the worker and farmer or peasantry respectively, symbolize what was considered two of the four most respected occupations in China: the farmer, worker, teacher and soldier. The agricultural objects are said to also acknowledge the role of the peasantry in the Chinese Civil War between 1927 and 1937.
The emblem was officially unveiled on September 20, 1950. It perceptibly shows the People's Republic of China as a socialist state lead by the working class with an alliance between workers and peasants.
