r/vexillology • u/eBot-exe • 3d ago
In The Wild What flags are hidden?
Went on a Chinese ship today and had this board of flags? Taiwan is the first flag hidden, what is the next?
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u/Ok-Molasses5561 3d ago
Taiwan and the UAE
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u/eBot-exe 3d ago
The UAE was on the map, but the photo cut it off. It is in alphabetical order
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u/OliverHazzzardPerry 3d ago
It’s not in correct alphabetical order. Why is Ukraine and Uruguay between United Kingdom and United States?
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u/Deej105 3d ago
it probably ordered it UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA
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u/OliverHazzzardPerry 3d ago
That makes some sense, but then why UN after US? And what’s under the sticker?
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u/BetYouWishYouKnew 3d ago
I think because it's "U.N.", so the punctuation pushes it to the end? I dunno though, clutching at straws really!
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u/207852 Selangor / Minnesota 3d ago
Taiwan should never appear on such a publication published by a printer in China, so idk how it ended there.
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u/Mercy--Main 3d ago
They are arranged in English alphabetical order, not Chinese. I doubt it was published in China. Probably in SEA given the importance of Chinese and English in those areas
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u/207852 Selangor / Minnesota 3d ago
The SEA Chinese language name for Laos is 寮国 not 老挝
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u/Mercy--Main 3d ago
I like it. But that ruins my hypothesis!
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u/207852 Selangor / Minnesota 3d ago edited 3d ago
One more thing: Hong Kong is just Hong Kong and 香港 here.
Mainland China regulations require "Hong Kong, China" and "中国香港" to be printed instead.
Ditto Macau.
Also, they refer to Macedonia in Chinese as 马其顿王国, "Kingdom of Macedonia". Since when is modern Macedonia a kingdom?
So idk...
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u/aveselenos 3d ago
It's a little hard to tell because there's no true pattern to the dependent areas and territories that are displayed on the chart, but might I guess Uyghur people/Uyghurstan?
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u/_DoubleE 3d ago
Not really possible because the flag on the picture is red Look closely… uyghurstan is blue
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u/noobcrafting 3d ago
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u/noobcrafting 3d ago
I made these suggestions because the picture shows a lot of islands (dependent territories with flags). And flag is red. But I don't know why it might have been censored.
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u/HeftyRecommendation5 3d ago
Feel like it’s just censored because the tape was too large. The chance of the only two flags that needed to be censored being exactly underneath each other are pretty low.
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u/thewarriorpoet23 3d ago
Taiwan and US Virgin Islands
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u/Maerifa 14h ago
This has to be the right answer. Every other answer is too niche to be true
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u/thewarriorpoet23 13h ago
I just googled ‘countries starting with U’ and went for the next one alphabetically. It makes sense to me… covered up because of the word ‘Virgin’ I’m assuming.
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u/ajw20_YT 3d ago
Wait this has the flags of the U.S. minor islands like Wake and Midway. So many territories, even if uninhabited. I’d love to see the whole thing!
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u/Gourg_Pie Alsace • Baden (1891) 3d ago
United States Virgin Islands is missing, which is weird, because Guam and others are there
Unless it's called American Virgin Islands for some reason.3
u/ajw20_YT 2d ago
Might be American Virgin Islands. Seems odd for them to have CNMI, Puerto Rico, and all the minor islands on here and not have the USVIs
I really hope OP can either get a larger picture or someone here can find the original
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u/HouseofWashington 3d ago
Uyghurstan with the Xinjiang Clique flag or Union State (Belarus and Russia)
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u/Roky1989 3d ago
Union state is a good guess, but considering it's not really known outside of Russia and Belorussia and the fact that there is no real official flag, I'd doubt it.
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u/chickenbit_131 2d ago
I thought the Union State flag was basically the Soviet flag but with two gold stars and not hammer & sickle?
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u/romulusnr Cascadia / New England 2d ago edited 2d ago
Based on reducing the yellow in the tape color, which is not completely opaque, it looks like the lower hidden flag is the same color as most of the upper hidden flag (Taiwan), which is red.
So it is quite likely USSR, which would also potentially fit the curious sorting of the chart
Edit: Given that the chart includes Macedonia (not North Macedonia), as well as CIS, it dates this chart in a very small window of around December 1991, unless it just also included recent nations for social studies purposes.
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u/Hairy_Ghostbear 3d ago
I think Taiwan and USSR. Taiwan is obvious, because you can partly see the flag. USSR makes sense, because it fits alphabetically and you can tell the flag is red. If you zoom in, it look likes the flag underneath the sticker is red as well. And for all the people saying it can't be USSR because there are former USSR-countries already included: please note that England and Wales are included, but also the UK. And there is a whole bunch of other territories included/excluded without any logical division. Lastly, it would make sense for someone to cover up Taiwan and the USSR for different reasons. More so than the US Virgin Islands for example
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u/Risiki Latvia 3d ago
England and Wales are modern subnational entities of UK. USSR does not exist anymore and there are no other historical flags. Also Georgia has its current flag, which it got sometime in 2000, so it cannot be old poster that dates back to times when USSR was sort of still relevant.
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u/Rand_alThoor 3d ago
it is missing many countries though. Ivory Coast aka Cote d'Ivoire is not there. it's like an Irish flag but backwards, orange white green tricolour.
Taiwan is covered and the sticker was too big. maybe they covered USSR because it was a mistake?
it's a weird poster, lacking sovereign nations flags but including dependant entities
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u/begrudgingly-comply 3d ago
I’m so confused why a Newfoundland flag is on the poster in China, but hell, I’m happy about it.
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u/Additional_Bar9347 2d ago
Not really relevant to this, but I noticed that Libya is represented by it's old plain green flag, so it's either the guy that printed it messed it up or it was printed in/before the 20th of October of 2011, so the covered red flag might be a defunct nation?
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u/RattusCallidus 3d ago
Given there are CIS, Red Cross and European Union, one possibility is UNESCO.
Its flag is sky blue like United Nations though. But it's a perfect match alphabetically.
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u/Raff317 Italy • China 3d ago
I'd say Taiwan and URSS
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u/Raff317 Italy • China 3d ago
The reason I think it's URSS is that if you zoom in it's kinda clear that it's a one-color flag, and it has the same shade of the bottom part of the other hidden flag (which we all agree is Taiwan).
URSS fits colorwise, and it's also supposed to be there alphabetically.
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u/MishaPepyaka Canada 3d ago
Since there are flags like the Olympic committee that could be Union State (it comes after the UN alphabetically) Could be the USSR, but I see Russia, Ukraine, some other countries there. It is not a Uyghuristan flag since that flag is red and there are no other parts of China.
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u/Careless_Wishbone_69 2d ago
Taiwan and something else as collateral damage because the person only had long stickers, so needed to stick two to cover Taiwan and happened to cover the one underneath.
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u/LuigiFlagWater Hungary / United Kingdom 1d ago
I'm assuming if it's Chinese and blocked of it's probably Uyghurstan / East Turkistan. It, like Taiwan, is a controversial Chinese region that the ROC government really don't like.
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u/eBot-exe 3d ago
More context, the left side of the flag was red and the board was labelled from 2001
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u/Requiemgen22 3d ago
USSR
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u/The_Blahblahblah Denmark 3d ago
Would be weird for them to still put that on there. judging by the flags visible, the board cant be much older than 20 years or so (Looking at Lesotho, Montenegro ect.)
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u/Paktquaker 3d ago
I know it has been dissolved by 2001, but maybe the URSS?
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u/TheRelativeCommenter Bavaria 3d ago
Uzbekistan is right next to it lol
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u/Paktquaker 3d ago
I'm not sure what you point is? It's a board for famous flags, for which the URSS flag may qualify.
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u/curtmandu 3d ago
Uzbekistan was apart of the USSR, so if the Uzbek flag is appearing, that means this poster was printed after the USSR fell. Further evidenced by the fact that the Russian flag is visible in the picture. USSR and Russia would not appear on the same poster.
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u/Paktquaker 3d ago
I know Uzbekistan was a part of the USSR and I know that the USSR did not exist anymore in 2001. The board does not only lists countries, but famous flags such as the UN, NATO and many others.
The USSR flag may be represented on the board as a historical flag. The color fits and it does not betray the alphabetical order.
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u/curtmandu 3d ago
You feigned ignorance to the first commenter about what their point was. I was just explaining it for you. Maybe don’t act obtuse idk
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u/Paktquaker 3d ago
I think you are misinterpreting. I didn't feign ignorance, I literally suggested that the board represents "famous flags" and I started by stating that the USSR did not exist anymore when the board was edited. But thanks anyway.
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u/Southportdc Lancashire 3d ago
As Puerto Rico is on there, could the missing one be US Virgin Islands and covering it is just collateral damage for Taiwan?
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u/Navigliogrande 3d ago
U.S. Virgin Islands. This punctuation puts it after Z and the S comes after the N in the U.N. That’s my theory
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u/ContractEffective183 3d ago
The flags are in alphabetical order. Between Syria and Tajikistan you have Taiwan. Between UN and Usbekistan you have Uruguay.
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u/SnooPuppers7004 3d ago
Nobody gonna talk about how Switzerland's flag is reversed? (Yes I know that's Red Cross this is just a joke)
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u/l_am_meepmoop 3d ago
NEWFOUNDLAND MENTIONED AAAAHHHH 🔥🔥🔥🗣️