
Last modified: 2020-07-31 by ian macdonald
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Today in a report on TV, I saw a Games of Nationalities in China: 54
  recognized minorities or nationalities marched under their own flags.
  Unfortunately was only a small report and only two flags show. One is light
  blue with elaborate emblem en canton. Another is red with three white Chinese
  characters. I believe that some nationalities have flag own (and recognized)
  and others have not yet adopted one, and marched under red flag with the name
  of their nationality. But is important know that the nations in China has a
  right to a flag own: 54 new flags undocumented!!!
  Jaume  Ollé, 19 August 1999
We all know the 52 Chinese Nationalities don't have flags and it is unlikely 
they would have them in the near future. Several years ago, our Latvian friend 
from RussoVex-ml, Ilmars Bite, found the webpage of the Russian version of the 
'People's Daily' (Renmin Ribao - - Zhenmin Zhibao - 人民日报), an organ of the 
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, presenting a set of emblems 
of all recognized nationalities of the PRC. 
That website (http://russian.people.com.cn/31515/6320561.html) is defunct now (the 
cached copy shows only the text - no images) but I did save the images and 
have done a lot of additional research on the Chinese nationalities. Forgot 
about it until now, and wonder if it would be of any interest to the list 
members. I can offer to share it with you guys, knowing perfectly well FOTW is 
not EOTW, but at the same time detecting an interest of some of you in  
other symbolics in lieu of non-existing flags. After all, we play frequently 
with some fictional and dubious materials, and these are real and genuine 
symbols of the ethnic groups, some numbering in tens, even hundreds, millions of 
souls. As it took a lot of effort, and is a rather large project, please, let me 
know if you are interested in it. Otherwise it would be a wasted enterprise. 
Chrystian Kretowicz, 16 July 2010
I think this would be very interesting to see. FOTW has also never been 
exclusively for flags, we have always presented national coats of arms etc. As 
for these nationalities, I think it would be great if we could present each 
emblem with words like "this nationality has no official flag, but it has an 
emblem which looks like this".
Elias Granqvist, 17 July 2010
You are right, there are 55 nationalities + Han, which makes it 56. I've got 
the number from my own memory, which is, obviously, faulty nowadays.
I did find out it is well above the daily quota to send the images of the 
emblems to the list, therefore, decided the best immediate solution would be to 
place them on my
Facebook page. It is in the process of developing.
Meanwhile, I was surprized with the discovery of the magnificent
new webpage 
where the emblems are not only shown but described in detail. This website is 
still being updated, so it would be necessary to have some patience and hope it 
would be completed. 
Chrystian Kretowicz, 18 July 2010
I think most of these emblems are so strict in their form, you could very 
easily make coats of arms based on them and thus get a basis for banners of arms. 
Too bad the Chinese communists probably would not be interested in that. 
Elias Granqvist, 18 July 2010
Some of these designs are so beautifull one can wonder how splendid it would 
be to translate them into flags. The project is completed now - all 56 emblems 
on 135 pages. Included there is a color emblem of the Yao Nationality found on 
the web.  Maybe, as a bonus, I shoud continue with the emblems of Taiwan's 
aboriginal tribes?
Chrystian Kretowicz, 20 July 2010
As the Facebook's albums are concerned, it is all there intact. Here is the 
link again: 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26593&id=1826737355 
You may want to go a little further by exploring the albums on the Autonomous 
Territories, part I and part II at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40004&id=1826737355 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41464&id=1826737355 
where you can find all the officially designated "autonomous" subdivisions of 
the People's Republic.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 20 March 2011