For those of you who don’t own a television (like myself), you might be interested to know that this week is Shark Week on Discovery Channel. Apparently this tradition is in its 23rd year!
Shark Week got me thinking about animals. Canada’s national emblem is embodied in an animal – the beaver. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t know this.
image from wildlifeandpeta.com
Most countries have an animal as their national emblem, but sometimes not. Taiwan is one such exception.
image from wikipedia.org
It appears more like a flag than it does an emblem or a symbol, but it is the emblem nonetheless. It is referred to, quite simply, as “Blue Sky with a White Sun.” Straight and to-the-point.
But like many emblems which seem simply designed, there are many hidden meanings behind it. There are twelve points on the sun, for example, to represent the twelve months and the twelve Chinese hours. (The Chinese had their own systems of measurement, much like the Western world has Imperial or Metric units. Most of the Chinese measurements were changed in the 20th century to fit the Metric system.)
Officially, it has its origins as the KMT party flag, and it’s not so common to see it anymore by itself. Now as the Taiwanese flag, you see the same picture but it’s featured in the corner (much like the blue and white stars on the American flag) with a solid red colour taking up the rest of the flag.
As cool as this all is, I was curious as to what are the other national “stuff” of Taiwan. Here are some of the things I found:
National Flower – Plum Blossom
image from placestovisitinchina.com
National Bird: Blue Magpie
image from pixdaus.com
One source indicated that the national animal is a goat but I didn’t trust it enough. But it would be awesome if it was. Especially if it was a tree climbing goat like the ones in Morocco.
image from laughingsquid.com - if only it were photoshopped. It's not.
As a final closing note, I’m going to start putting my sources in each entry. While I haven’t claimed and never will claim to be an official source on anything, I figure it’s fair that I should cite any information I put in here. I do use Wikipedia, but I try to only use articles that aren’t in question.
Until next time!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_hour#Time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Sky_with_a_White_Sun
http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/aboutroc/national_flower.htm
http://en.wildatheart.org.tw/archives/national_birds_stolen_from_nest.html
Amelia's Accidents and Adventures in Taiwan 
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