During 1955 there was an issue of four military awards consisting of one ribboned medal and three classes of breast stars all having a large red enamelled star in a ring with the Chinese numerals for "8" over a "1" at center. I have encountered this design on some modern badges and pins and decided to find out just what it commemorates so I contacted Ma Tak Wo in Hong Kong. He advised me that it is the "First of August" - Peoples Liberation Army Day.

Digging deeper I found out that this goes back to the Nanching Uprising marking the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War on August 1, 1927 between the Nationalist Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party which relates to the founding of the Peoples Liberation Army.

All four awards are issued wth a small ribbon bar and the class of the breast badge is determined by the number of vertical yellow stripes at the center of the red ribbon. Illustrated is the cover of the case and the third class breast star and ribbon. I have never been offered the first or second class breast star by any of my sources in the mainland. These are all illustrated in full color in the "Illustrated Collection of Badges in the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum" catalog printed on August 1, 1996.