Given Taiwan’s record on IPR protection, perhaps the skull and crossbones might be an apt symbol for its flag. 
[quote=“Screaming Jesus”]
(1) A good portion of the population here dislikes it, because it has become linked in their eyes to a political position which they do not support. (That there is such a thing as “the Republic of China” which was founded by the KMT, and continues on Taiwan, and that they should see this as a good thing.) Regardless of what you think of all this, the flag shouldn’t alienate a substantial portion of the population.[/quote]
I would ask you to be more specific as to “a good portion” and “a substantial portion”, but the only number you could provide would most likely be based on polls specifically manipulated to get certain results. And I know you won’t be quoting election results as the majority of voters in the last election voted pan-blue. So I’ll just treat this as something someone told you or something you think of as “common knowledge”.
If that was the case then no countries would recognize Taiwan as an independent nation if it did declare independence.
Which is, of course, exactly what would happen.
Taiwan won’t be a nation forever, so it’s kinda nonsense to talk about its flag right now!
If that was the case then no countries would recognize Taiwan as an independent nation if it did declare independence.[/quote]
Sadly, that is the truth because everyone has to look out for their own interests, including America.
By “a good portion” I mean big enough to be important, but not necessarily a majority. I have no idea what the actual number would be.
On a visit to Greece, I discovered the central image of Flag # 2 (the eight-petalled rosetta / four hearts) being used by the Panhellenic Juvenile Diabetes Fund.
More flag fun! According to yesterday’s newspaper (China News, I think) the Taiwan Solidarity Union is having a contest to design a new Taiwan flag. I want to enter!
I voted for number 1, but I take it back. I vote for number 2.
Quick update on the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s flag contest, which ended yesterday (U.S. Thanksgiving). I caught a glimpse of the entries last night, except for a few late arrivals.
I hate to say this, but of the 40 or so that I saw posted on the wall in print-out form, most of them were really bad. A few were at least mama-huhu, but nothing seemed exciting enough to lead troops into battle under. There seemed to be a real lack of creativity, at least among the people capable of and willing to enter flag designs.
A widespread problem was the indiscriminate use of words on the flags. (A big “TAIWAN” across the flag?) Another was the use of color combinations or new symbols (e.g. weird circle thing) which didn’t mean anything that I could discern, and / or were just ugly. A flag should be instantly recognizable, ideally–jump out at you–and none of these did.
Few alluded to Taiwan’s history or culture, though one looked like it MIGHT have been an aboriginal design. (Green and blue, I can’t describe the design but it used four half-circles. I would have voted for this one.) Few seemed to have any idea of vexillology.
Let me describe some of the other ones I remember, in case they don’t post them on the tsu site.
An ROC flag with a green Taiwan map inside the sun.
A green square inside a red square.
Field divided vertically, red and green, with a white circle in the middle (like Bangladesh, sort of).
Three horizontal stripes, blue-white-blue, with a blue whale in the midde.
One used the asterisk symbol from flag # 2 (beginning of this thread) on the jack of a red-green-yellow color scheme (sorry, forgot details).
Three horizontal stripes (forgot colors) with a sideways Taiwan flag in the middle, kind of like the flag of Cyprus.
A 3-D pointy white flower (honeysuckle? what’s the one on the Hong Kong flag?) between blue and orange horizontal stripes.
Three verticle stripes red-white-red, with a black letter “T” in the middle. (There were a lot kind of like this, or with Taiwan maps, or the word “Taiwan” in Roman letters or Chinese characters.)
A white flag (oh, hush) with a green globe in the middle.
5 of these will win 50,000 NT, after which people will vote on the internet for which one they like best (to receive 500,000 NT). Let the drum roll begin! And the winner is…
If the government can demand the KMT drop its symbol because it resembles the national flag, then the ROT flag cannot contain any green maps of Taiwan or the DPP will have to change its symbol as well.
The only one that’s not butt-ugly is the first one. My problem with the first one is that it might be too difficult for people (like children in school) to draw.
Japan has one of the best flags in the world - simple, and impossible to hang the wrong way around.
Simplicity and striking distinctiveness are all-important in the design of a flag. Surely it shouldn’t be too difficult for the collective inspiration of all the people on these islands to come up with something suitable.
The current flag of the ROC is actually a very good one – it’s such a pity that its political inappropriateness make it so necessary to try to find a replacement for it.
The simplest national flag in the world actually belongs to Libya–it is all green. Period. To me that doesn’t show great brilliance.
Ideally, a flag should have some history or culture behind it, so when you explain it, people learn something. Especially when the country involved is a bit obscure, a few colored stripes or something just won’t do. People have to remember it. It should stand out.
A national flag should be easy to distinguish from other flags. (Unlike the present ROC flag, which looks like Burma’s.) Probably Nepal would win this category (it’s not square), but the distinctive elements should have some meaning too (lack of squareness doesn’t tell us much about Nepal).
If it looks like other flags, past or present, this should be deliberate and show some natural affinity. (Think Australia and New Zealand.) It shouldn’t happen by accident (e.g., Poland and Indonesia), that’s just sloppy.
Most of all, its intended people have to like it. The customer is always right.
Well I hope you guys can hurry up and decide.
It is quite problematic to have my burning CSB effigy without his Taidu flag.
Irony par excellence.
The TSU has announced the names of the five winners of their flag contest, but has not yet posted their winning designs. However, several can be seen in the photographs of the TSU rally, from the newspapers of Dec. 6th. These include a green Taiwan map on a white field, surrounded by rays of red, blue, red, orange, and green; a horizontal bicolor blue/orange, emblazoned with some sort of white flower; and a green flag with a white triangle (pointed upwards) over a white circle (a farmer with a hat? No, it is apparently a stylized version of “Tai” in “Taiwan.”)
And if you don’t like these, there’ll be another flag contest after the war.
The red rectangle with imperial yellow border represents the fraternity of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the Chinese people
The blue disc represents the free nation of the Republic of China as a manifestation of the love of the nation and liberty
The white 12-pointed solar star honors the historical origin of the Republic of China and at the same time transcending political parties. It stands for democracy and equality