The 30th International Congress of Vexillology, held in Beijing on 10-20 August 2024, was organized by the Vexillological Research Center of China (VRCC), a FIAV member since 2019. As our readers probably know, these congresses are the height of organized vexillological activity and have been held since 1965 every other year. After ICV 28 San Antonio 2019, the COVID-19 pandemics forced us to postpone the next one for a year, and we switched to even years at the previous ICV 29 Ljubljana 2022. In six decades we have visited every continent except Antarctica and gathered from 53 different countries, with an average of just over 18 countries per congress. A total of almost 2700 participants, averaging 92 per congress, have together presented almost 800 papers. Most of them, published in congress proceedings and totaling well over 10,000 pages, are now available at the FIAV website for us all to build upon that corps of knowledge. This is indeed the main objective of FIAV as defined in Article 2 of our Constitution: “the pursuit of vexillology, which is the creation and development of a body of knowledge about flags…” This is the corpus of knowledge our founding fathers dreamt about 60 years ago.
In Beijing we had an unusually long Congress lasting a full ten days – while the usual are five-day events. ICV 30 was the first time in mainland Asia, as decided by the FIAV General Assembly (the ICV 23 Yokohama location was an executive decision of the FIAV Board, when no nomination was available). The VRCC’s interest in holding a Congress was announced during ICV 27 London 2017, and the General Assembly decided during the ICV 27 San Antonio 2019 to go to China, even if it was a very different world at the time. The FIAV members found it important to promote vexillology there and elsewhere in Asia. Nevertheless, we were aware that the turnout could be lower for various reasons, as often happens with congresses outside Europe or North America, and recent global events did not help matters. Nevertheless, we had an excellent congress worthy of remembering. Such congresses have lasting regional impacts, and we are already seeing their fruits, with organized vexillology blooming in Thailand, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and hopefully more countries.
The Congress venue was held in the vicinity of the Beijing International Airport on the campus of the Gengdan Institute of Beijing University of Technology, a private, independent, non-profit university that hosts the VRCC offices. There VRCC performs its main local activity – the training of flag-raisers from schools of all levels, from primary to university, to perform standardized flag-raising ceremonies around the country. In fact, the Congress started at the end of one such two-week camp for young pioneers (7- to 10-year-old pupils). These youths, together with their older leaders and teachers (more than 300), joined us for the first day of lectures and performed for us an astonishing flag-raising ceremony for the flags of China, VRCC, and ICV 30. The Congress delegates also joined in the graduation ceremony for the young flag-raisers, where FIAV officers had a role in presenting the best students with awards and certificates. We were all impressed with the enthusiasm and joy these youth showed us and their eagerness to practice their English and collect our autographs.
After the opening addresses and the FIAV president’s official opening of the ICV 30 with the bang of the gavel, the first session of lectures was held with the young flag-raisers in attendance. The chosen topics were audience-appropriate – the Chinese national flag, flag-raising practices and experiences, the meaning of the Chinese national flag, etc. All the lectures were held in Chinese with sequential English translations or vice-versa. This doubled the length of all the lectures, so it is no wonder the hosts chose to have a longer Congress.
The Chinese and foreign delegates amounted to about 40, with some 13 countries represented. The next day the usual sequence of lecture sessions began, each ending with a “round-table” session of flag dialogue linked to the presented topic where each of the delegates was asked to comment on his local practices. This inclusion of wider discussion was a novelty of this Congress and might become standard practice at future congresses.
Thus the first academic day started with FIAV President Heimer presenting an overview and analysis of ICV attendance, papers, and proceedings for the past 60 years, followed by Ted Kaye’s two papers on American city and state flags. The second session was on national flags – FIAV Secretary-General Bruce Berry talked on Bophuthatswana and Dong Lin on flag colors apparently “affecting” national destiny. The second day’s theme was on regulations and legislation. John Cartledge provided a comprehensive overview of flags in laws of the United Kingdom, while Jiang Bixin told the story of the emergence of China’s national flag law. The afternoon was for royal flags, where Attila István Szekeres talked about the Romanian royal flags after World War I. Ji Ruxun presented flags in historical artifacts in China, Khor Poh Kiang talked about the oldest recorded Siamese flag with a chakra, while Secretary-General Berry read a paper by FIAV President Emeritus Michel Lupant on the flags of the Kingdom of Belgium.
The organizers prepared a two-day excursion to local sites. The Beijing traffic and distances made it clear why they did that, since one day would hardly be enough. We visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu and the Temple of Heaven, with lunch at a traditional rural restaurant and dinner at the oldest restaurant serving dumplings in Beijing. The next day we went to the National Museum at Tiananmen, which holds the first raised national flag in 1948 and the original flag mast from the main square. We had lunch at a modern urban vegan restaurant next to Tiananmen and continued the tour through the Forbidden City. After dinner at a Chinese version of an Italian restaurant, we had the pleasure of attending a Chinese opera.
The topic of the third academic day was flag making. Yusuke Katsurada talked about the traditional Japanese silk screen technique. Song Rufen gave an emotional presentation about how her father was tasked with manufacturing the first national flag in 1948. The ICV host Zhao Xinfeng gave a lecture on the technology involved in the flag-raising ceremonies he leads in China.
As usual, one afternoon was reserved for the FIAV General Assembly. In accordance with the Constitution, each FIAV member may name a proxy to represent it, even if no autochthonous delegate is present, thus the Assembly had more than the required quorum of half of the FIAV members present. Even though there were no “controversial” decisions on the table, the standard agenda included officers’ reports (since the Secretary-General for the Congress was not present, his was read by the Secretary-General), reports on published proceedings, etc. Since no applications for new members and no nominations for the next ICV after ICV 31 Paris 2026 (which was confirmed) were received, there was no need to decide about those matters. The current officers announced running for re-election, and having no counter-candidates, they were smoothly re-elected for the next mandate until the next Congress.
The next day of lectures included Masako Sugawara’s talk on Japanese flags with Chinese inscriptions, while Zhao Xinfeng talked about the origin and development of Chinese flag culture. In the afternoon Zhao had two more papers on flag-related topics in the works of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping.
The last academic day included one more lecture by Zhao on flag-raising ceremonies for international sporting events including the Beijing Olympics.
While the campus location made it somewhat difficult to “elope” to the city in the evening, the activities provided were more than time-fulfilling. Even so, eventually everyone managed to get out for a brief local experience.
The final dinner was organized in a luxurious hotel with traditional Chinese round tables. We combined the usual Western ceremony we prepare for such an event, presenting FIAV awards, with the Chinese customs and dinner order. The Whitney Smith Award for the best paper went to Masako Sugawara for her paper “Historical Military Flags with Chinese Characters: Japanese Banners with the Name of God”. The Vexillon Award for the most important contribution to vexillology was given to the Flags of the World (FOTW) on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of its founding. FOTW has made vexillology not only accessible to active vexillologists, but also freely available to the entire world community. The title and medal of the Fellow of the Federation for making significant contributions to vexillology and/or for rendering significant service to FIAV or its members was awarded to Jim Ferrigan (NAVA), Attila István Szekeres (THVA), and representatives of the Congress organizer Zhao Xinfeng, Fei Sheng, and Liu Jin (VRCC). After the delegate of the next Congress organizer invited everyone to join us in Paris in two years, the FIAV President announced the Congress closed with the gavel, to which the emblem of ICV 30 was attached in the long-standing tradition.
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