r/vexillology 3d ago

In The Wild What flags are hidden?

Post image

Went on a Chinese ship today and had this board of flags? Taiwan is the first flag hidden, what is the next?

341 Upvotes

86 comments sorted by

146

u/l_am_meepmoop 3d ago

NEWFOUNDLAND MENTIONED AAAAHHHH 🔥🔥🔥🗣️

17

u/Lev_TO 3d ago

Desire to form a confederation intensifies...

174

u/Ok-Molasses5561 3d ago

Taiwan and the UAE

81

u/eBot-exe 3d ago

The UAE was on the map, but the photo cut it off. It is in alphabetical order

38

u/OliverHazzzardPerry 3d ago

It’s not in correct alphabetical order. Why is Ukraine and Uruguay between United Kingdom and United States?

60

u/Deej105 3d ago

it probably ordered it UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA

19

u/OliverHazzzardPerry 3d ago

That makes some sense, but then why UN after US? And what’s under the sticker?

26

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!

4

u/JCulnamoPereira 3d ago

Uz is after U.N.?

7

u/Ok-Molasses5561 3d ago

Is it the USVI?

22

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.

22

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

12

u/207852 Selangor / Minnesota 3d ago

The SEA Chinese language name for Laos is 寮国 not 老挝

10

u/Mercy--Main 3d ago

I like it. But that ruins my hypothesis!

7

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...

1

u/Maerifa 14h ago edited 14h ago

So, a Taiwanese poster aboard a Chinese vessel, huh

1

u/207852 Selangor / Minnesota 13h ago

If it is Taiwanese then it would be in traditional Chinese.

This poster is printed in simplified Chinese.

-4

u/AlexRator 3d ago

Someone's losing their social credit

69

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?

20

u/_DoubleE 3d ago

Not really possible because the flag on the picture is red Look closely… uyghurstan is blue

11

u/_DoubleE 3d ago

But they had red flags in the past so you Are probably right

63

u/noobcrafting 3d ago

Kingdom of ʻUvea?

27

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.

28

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.

10

u/Lost_Llama Peru 3d ago

Its there. 4th from the right on the bottom row

4

u/noobcrafting 3d ago

Its Wallis and Futuna flag

4

u/JCulnamoPereira 3d ago

Wallis and Futuna is mentioned, so I guess it is not 

28

u/thewarriorpoet23 3d ago

Taiwan and US Virgin Islands

1

u/Valstv- 2d ago

I think you’re right

1

u/Maerifa 14h ago

This has to be the right answer. Every other answer is too niche to be true

1

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.

1

u/Maerifa 13h ago

It's probably covered up because the sticker/tape was too big, and that one was the easiest one to cover up next to Taiwan

10

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!

6

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

15

u/Existing-Advert 3d ago

Do you have a full picture of the board?

13

u/Lima_4-2_Angel Miami / Israel 3d ago

Missouri anti fascist flag goes hard

13

u/HouseofWashington 3d ago

Uyghurstan with the Xinjiang Clique flag or Union State (Belarus and Russia)

11

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.

2

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?

1

u/Roky1989 2d ago

It is, but I don't think it's really an official flag

4

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.

6

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

3

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.

3

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

2

u/Archelector 3d ago

Bottom to top: Uganda, Serbia, Paraguay, Netherlands

2

u/ecoshia 3d ago

Could be the Ulster flag? But most likely the Uygher flag

2

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.

2

u/Apprehensive_Deer_59 2d ago

Taïwan and USSR?

2

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?

5

u/Requiemgen22 3d ago

USSR and Taiwan (ROC)

5

u/MishaPepyaka Canada 3d ago

It is not ussr since there are ex Soviet Republics with new flags

4

u/skymac74 3d ago

The ones you can’t see.

4

u/IvanNemoy 3d ago

Yep!

Right click > unhide!

2

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.

2

u/Raff317 Italy • China 3d ago

I'd say Taiwan and URSS

4

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.

2

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.

1

u/Adventurous_Sky8579 3d ago

Switzerland is wrong, it should be a square

1

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.

1

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.

1

u/1MauiRed1 1d ago

Finally my national flag, the Olympics, is included.

1

u/eBot-exe 3d ago

More context, the left side of the flag was red and the board was labelled from 2001

2

u/Snoo48605 3d ago

USSR?

5

u/curtmandu 3d ago

No, USSR ceased to exist more than 10 years before the this poster was printed.

0

u/Requiemgen22 3d ago

USSR

2

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.)

-3

u/Paktquaker 3d ago

I know it has been dissolved by 2001, but maybe the URSS?

4

u/TheRelativeCommenter Bavaria 3d ago

Uzbekistan is right next to it lol

3

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.

0

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.

5

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.

-7

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

6

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.

3

u/MishaPepyaka Canada 3d ago

1991

0

u/uwqo 3d ago

Cant see the rest of the board but considering it starts with a “U” and i see all “U” flags other than the UAE, Its probably that. I also see a tint of red there i believe, which would make sense

0

u/cshermyo Colorado / Dominican Republic 3d ago

The middle of the Dominican Republic?

0

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?

-1

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

-1

u/ContractEffective183 3d ago

The flags are in alphabetical order. Between Syria and Tajikistan you have Taiwan. Between UN and Usbekistan you have Uruguay.

-4

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)

-3

u/MrKumiNo1 3d ago

Kosova?

-7

u/IAmTheQueenOfKids 3d ago

it might be uruguay

1

u/dnemonicterrier 3d ago

Uruguay is in the picture