Last modified: 2013-07-20 by ian macdonald
Keywords: vietnam | cochinchina |
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image by Jorge Candeias
The Cochinchinese flag that shown is a late XIXth century flag. As you
know, the Indochinese Union was made of 5 entities: 1 colony (Cochinchina) and
4 protectorates (Tonkin, Annam and Paracel Islands, Cambodia, Laos).
Is this flag the official flag of the Colony of Cochinchina? Does anyone know
something about a Tonkinese flag during French rule?
Pierre Gay, 13 December 1998
The Cochinchina flag was in fact an ensign. Seems that was an older ensign
of the Annam Emperors: yellow (as China) with
serrated ribbon. The serrated ribbon seems to be wrong interpreted from far
observation or descriptions, and converted in many triangles (they are
reported somewhat as grey-blue, green, maroon, and black; and now in blue).
But after the establishment of the protectorate the ensign was little (or
never) used in Cochinchina, and disappeared also in Annam
before c. 1885. Afterwards, there was no flag for Cochinchina colony (like no
flag for French colonies). Tonkin was a vice-kingdom of Annam. Perhaps the
viceroy used his own standard but that is not know for me. I believe that no
specific flag for Tonkin was never reported.
Jaume Ollé, 13 December 1998
Cochinchina originally appears to have referred to the area between India and China, not to a specific
location. A flag similar to the Cochinchina flag (it appears to have a dragon
in the center) is depicted in a black and white picture engraving on a
University of Richmond website dealing with Vietnam in
particular about the Trung sisters who led a rebellion against the Chinese
between 39-40 AD. However given the fact that the script on the image is the
current script and not the Chinese-style script, it is unlikely to verify the
flag would have been used during the Trung rebellion, rather a depiction using
a more modern symbol - and the Trung sisters would be used as inspiration in
the battles for independence against the French and the fight against the
Americans. Unfortunately no date is given for the origin of the picture.
Phil Nelson, 1 September 2003
image by Eugene Ipavec, 2 September 2008
"Cochin China" is shown at position (6;9) of
an 1858 US flag chart: White rectangular ~2:3 flag with tae-guk spiral
António Martins-Tuválkin, 27 August 2008
The taeguk is vertically divided as it spirals inward, the sequence of colors being red-yellow-red-blue-yellow-red. The charges surrounding it are, clockwise from top left:
In addition to these we have eight black balls scattered aroud the
field; one for each charge?
Eugene Ipavec, 2 September 2008