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Monday, July 30, 2012

Flag Flap!

Occupy Regent Street! This photo has been making the rounds... Since the private organization that hung the flags of the various nations on Regent Street in London kowtowed to Beijing (why?) and yanked down the ROC flag, replacing it with the Chinese Taipei rag, there's been a huge response in Taiwan. Good. But even better, the international media has quietly responded, with EPSN, BBC, and other media orgs using the ROC flag rather than the Chinese Taipei rag to represent Taiwan in their Olympic reports, plus some play in the international media for Taiwan's plight (FocusTaiwan: government regrets... Lord Faulkner of Worcester rips the organization that bent over for Beijing). (Old post: China's foreign policy in sport)

Issues that highlight Taiwan's lack of international space galvanize locals. In a culture obsessed with rank and scores, nonexistence is the unkindest cut of all. Taiwanese crave recognition. Cursed as I am, I can't help observing, though, that this flag affair shows how thoroughly the KMT has gotten locals to incorporate its symbols into their hearts. Perhaps someday it will also show how locals have reconfigured the meanings of such symbols and made them their own: everyone says its Taiwan's flag.
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12 comments:

  1. Tim MaddogJuly 30, 2012 at 9:12 PM

    There's a petition on change.org to replace the more offensive of the two flags with the slightly-less-offensive one (note they they unfortunately call it "Taiwan's 'True' Flag"), in case anyone's interested in signing it and maybe adding a comment.

    Tim Maddog

    ReplyDelete
  2. CarlosJuly 31, 2012 at 1:54 AM

    Even some of my greenest friends call it Taiwan's flag. They would happily undo all the vestiges of the ROC except that one. I find it strange, but ultimately it isn't one of the really important things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JadeJuly 31, 2012 at 2:30 AM

    The irony is the majority of the people who defend the ROC flag are Taiwan centric people. After all flying the ROC flag is better than havin PROC flags flying in Taiwan. It just puzzles me that while so many Taiwanese are trying to matain their own life style and identity many of the pro-unification, sorry pro-annexation, people (KMTers) KMTers are trying so hard to get rid of the flag that they created and have imposed on Taiwanese.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 31, 2012 at 7:18 AM

    There has been such a deep rooted program of iconalization and ritualization around these ROC/KMT images, they have become a major part of the Taiwanese experience. All of the ritual involved in school flag ceremonies, Sun Yat-sen worship etal, has made these symbols resonate among Taiwanese as a part of their experience, but with possibly vastly different meanings than originally intended as they have been remained in a Taiwanese context.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michael TurtonJuly 31, 2012 at 7:37 AM

    There has been such a deep rooted program of iconalization and ritualization around these ROC/KMT images, they have become a major part of the Taiwanese experience. All of the ritual involved in school flag ceremonies, Sun Yat-sen worship etal, has made these symbols resonate among Taiwanese as a part of their experience, but with possibly vastly different meanings than originally intended as they have been remained in a Taiwanese context.

    Yes, that's what we're seeing here. The Taiwanese have remade the flag of the ROC as their own. It's cool to watch the consequences of this. Great comment, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJuly 31, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    The German national anthem ("Deutschlandlied", i.e. "The song of Germany"; AKA "The song of the Germans) was originally written for the Austrian emperor Francis II (Franz-Josef II) and was the national anthem of the Austrian empire until its end in 1918.

    Four years later (1922), Germany made it their national anthem; until today (with evolving changes to the lyrics.)

    So, if the ROC flag were to be made Taiwan's national flag, it'd not be "that unusual".

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michal ThimJuly 31, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    Symbols do not have static meaning. If majority of people consider it a flag of Taiwan, it is flag of Taiwan. Most of all, it is pragmatic approach too. Do you really think passerby on Regent Street knows all the complexity about Taiwanese political/identity debates? However, they may know this flag is flag of Taiwan...they usually dont know Taiwan is officially ROC, no one uses that because it just adds to overall confusion.

    Day will come, and people will be able to change the flag if they wish to. I would not be surprised if they keep current one, really! It is no longer KMT symbol...they denounced it when they did their utmost to hide all the flags from Chen Yun-lin in 2008.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Michael TurtonJuly 31, 2012 at 10:34 AM

    Yes, i think you are right, Michal.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ken Wu/https://www.facebook.com/kenwutaiwanJuly 31, 2012 at 1:34 PM

    Seriously, between ROC flag and Chinese Taipei flag, I would much rather have the Chinese Taipei flag, since ROC flag was what flown over dead bodies of Taiwanese people who died in 228 and white terror, not the Chinese Taipei flag. Taiwanese embracing ROC flag is like Jews embracing Nazi flag, not gonna sit well with me. Right now, I only use the WTC flag to represent Taiwan. It is no national flag, but before we have our own independent state of Taiwan, this will do~

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Flag_of_WTC.svg

    ReplyDelete
  10. DixteelJuly 31, 2012 at 6:45 PM

    Such a complex symbol, I wonder if there was another such symbol with so much conflicts and confusion behind it in human history. At the same time it represents Taiwan, ROC, Taiwan indepedence and KMT tyrany...Orz.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousJuly 31, 2012 at 11:31 PM

    BBC web site has bowed to the red China. As of 7/30:

    http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aSOC&ID=201207290020

    Today (7/31):

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/countries/chinese-taipei

    The Washington Post (7/31), we will see how long that flag will stand:

    http://stats.washingtonpost.com/olympics/medals.asp

    ReplyDelete
  12. John ScottAugust 1, 2012 at 11:40 AM

    Leave comments re. BBC website content:

    https://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/templates/bbcfaqs/emailstatic/emailSubmitPage?entryID=&id=PC3L48EDQ335TIABAHBEFOU782&moduleID=

    ReplyDelete

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