Flag of South Vietnam

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Flag ratio: 2:3

The flag of former South Vietnam was designed by Emperor Thành Thái in 1890 and was used by Emperor Bảo Đại in 1948. It was the flag of the former State of Vietnam (the French-controlled areas in both Northern and Southern Vietnam) from 1949 to 1955 and later of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1955 until April 30, 1975 when the south unconditionally surrendered to the north, where it was officially joined in a unified Vietnam a year later. The flag consists of a yellow field and three horizontal red stripes to and can be explained as either symbolising the unifying blood running through northern, central, and southern Vietnam, or as representing the symbol for "south" (as in, south from China and also 'nam' meaning south), in Daoist trigrams.

It is still used by some Vietnamese immigrants now living in other countries, mainly because the current Vietnamese flag is considered to be offensive to them.[1] From February 2003 to January 2006, in the United States, nine states, three counties and 76 cities have adopted resolutions recognizing the yellow flag as the "Vietnamese Heritage & Freedom Flag".[2]

Contents

[edit] Origins

First flag of the Nguyễn Dynasty, 1890 - 1920. Same as the flag of South Vietnam.
Former second flag of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam under Khải Định, used from 1920 to 1945
Flag of the Empire of Vietnam which was a Japanese puppet state, 9 March 1945 - 22 August 1945.
Provisional Revolutionary Government flag from 30 April 1975 until unification with North Vietnam
proposed flag of Government of free Vietnam.
Vietnamese Americans parading with the South Vietnamese flag during Tet.

In 1802-1820, Emperor Gia Long, the yellow flag was also used as the symbol of the Empire of Vietnam.

In 1890, the Emperor Thành Thái passed a decree, changing the flag with Chinese characters to a new flag. The yellow flag with three red stripes was created and used for the first time as the national flag (Đại Nam National Flag 1890-1920). Some claim this flag (called The Yellow Flag for short) is the first true "national flag" of the Vietnamese people for it reflects the aspiration and hope of the people, not just the emperors, for independence and unification of the Viet nation.[citation needed]

In 1916-1925, after Emperors Thanh Thai and Duy Tan were exiled to Africa and obeying the French, Emperor Khải Định issued a decree to change the national flag, the Yellow Flag, which signified the three unified regions (North, Central, and South) was replaced by a yellow flag with one red horizontal stripe. This yellow flag with one red stripe was also called the “Long Tinh” flag because it was transformed from the original Long Tinh flag of the Nguyen Dynasty.

In 1945, during Tran Trong Kim's government that is called the Empire of Vietnam by Japan, the two red bands were added to the middle broken red band to form the Quẻ Ly Flag. The Quẻ Ly Flag was the official flag of Vietnam at that time. Quẻ Ly is a divination trigram of "fabulous unicorn", sixth of the Bát Quái (the Eight Trigrams): Càn, Khâm, Cấn, Chấn, Tốn, Ly, Khôn, Đoài. This divination sign of fabulous unicorn represents the sun, fire, beam of light, and civilization. And more importantly, it also represents the direction of south, emphasizing that Vietnam, as the lands "passed the clouds" (see Yunnan) is southward from China.(See I Ching). This flag was used only from June 1945 to August 1945, when Bảo Đại abdicated as emperor.

On 2 June 1948, the Chief of the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, Brigadier General Nguyen Van Xuan, signed an ordinance to specify the characteristics of the Vietnamese National Flag as follows: "The national emblem is a flag of yellow background, the height of which is equal to two-thirds of its width. In the middle of the flag and along its entire width, there are three horizontal red bands. Each band has a height equal to one-fifteenth of the width. These three red bands are separated from one another by a space of the band's height." When the former Emperor Bảo Đại returned as chief of state in 1949, this design was adopted as the flag of the State of Vietnam.

The three red bands have the divination sign of Quẻ Càn, the first of the Eight Trigrams mentioned above. Quẻ Càn represents heaven. Based on the worldview of Vietnamese people, Quẻ Càn indicates the South Sky, the Vietnamese Nation, Vietnamese people, and the people's power. Another interpretation places the three red bands as symbols of the three regions of Vietnam: North, Central, and South. The flag was used by the Republic of Vietnam (more commonly known as South Vietnam) for the duration of that state's existence (1955 - 1975). It was abolished on 30 April 1975, when the South unconditionally surrendered to the North.

[edit] Political significance

The flag of the former South Vietnam (also used under Emperor Thanh Thai) remains highly controversial, particularly in the case of Vietnamese Americans, Vietnamese Australians, and other Vietnamese around the world who fled Vietnam after the war, who call it the "Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag."

In Vietnam at present, the flag is prohibited by law from public display.

In the United States, virtually no Vietnamese Americans use the current flag of Vietnam, which many of them consider offensive. Instead, they use the flag of South Vietnam as their symbol.

  • When a Vietnamese American video tape store owner displayed the flag and a photo of Ho Chi Minh in front of his store in Westminster, California in 1999, a month-long protest against it climaxed when 15,000 people held a candlelight vigil one night, sparking the Hitek Incident (Hitek was the name of the store).[3]
  • A faux pas by the United States Postal Service in using the current Vietnamese flag in a brochure to represent the Vietnamese American community that it serves caused some outrage among Vietnamese Americans and resulted in an apology.
  • In 2004, some Vietnamese American students at the California State University, Fullerton threatened to walk out on their graduation ceremony when the university chose to use the current flag of Vietnam to represent its Vietnamese students. The Vietnamese American students demanded that the university use the former flag of South Vietnam instead. This resulted in the university scrapping all foreign flags for the ceremony.
  • In 2006, Vietnamese-American students at the University of Texas at Arlington protested the use of the Vietnamese flag in the Hall of Flags in Nedderman Hall and the exclusion of the South Vietnamese flag at a cultural diversity show during International Week.[4] After weeks of protests, the university decided to scrap all flags from the display.
  • Prior to President George W. Bush's visit to Vietnam in 2006, the White House website briefly displayed the flag of the Republic of Vietnam before replacing it with the current flag of Vietnam.[5]
  • During World Youth Day 2008, tensions flared between the 800 Vietnamese pilgrims who used the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the 2300 Vietnamese Australians pilgrims who used the Republic of Vietnam flag.[6]
  • In 2008, many protested against Nguoi Viet Daily News, a Vietnamese-language newspaper in Orange County, for publishing a photograph of an art installation depicting a foot spa bearing the colors of the flag.[7]
  • The lobbying efforts of Vietnamese Americans resulted in the state governments of Louisiana[8], California[9] and Ohio[10] to adopt it to symbolize Vietnamese Americans.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://asiarecipe.com/vietflag.html
  2. ^ Resolution Recognizing: The Yellow Flag With Three Red Stripes as The Official Flag of the Vietnamese American
  3. ^ KOCE, Saigon, USA, 2004
  4. ^ A.J. Eaton (2006-04-20). "Protests will last until finals week". The Shorthorn Online. http://shorthorn.uta.edu/new/archives/2006/spring/042006/n03.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-30. 
  5. ^ "Weakened at home, Bush heads abroad". MSNBC. 2006-11-15. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15716229/. Retrieved 2007-05-07. 
  6. ^ David Ramli (2008-07-15). "Vietnamese Flag Choice Sparks Ideological Debate". Special Broadcasting Service. http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/vietnamese_flag_choice_sparks_ideological_debate_551821. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
  7. ^ My-Thuan Tran (2008-02-12). "Vietnamese Americans protest published photo". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/12/local/me-protest12. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  8. ^ Legislature of Louisiana. "RS 49:153.3". http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=181342http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=181342. Retrieved 2009-06-01. 
  9. ^ Office of the Governor, EXECUTIVE ORDER S-14-06
  10. ^ Ohio Legislature, SB-114

[edit] External links

A explanation of the flag by the Flags of the World which is the website devoted to vexillology.

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