Flag of Weihaiwei

The flag of Weihaiwei was the flag used by the British leased territory of

The flag of the Commissioner of Weihaiwei until 1903

The flag of the Commissioner of Weihaiwei between 1903 and 1930

In 1898, the

"The design of the flag hitherto used by the Commissioner of this Dependency is a dragon on the Union Jack and is in my opinion quite unsuitable. I have therefore to request that the Crown Agents may be instructed to have made for the use of the Commissioner two new flags, the device of the Mandarin Duck being substituted for the Dragon, which is as you are aware the national emblem of China and not appropriate in the case of a British Dependency".[2]

Following the letter,

The flag was designed as a British blue ensign defaced with a badge of two Mandarin ducks. The ducks consist of a male in the foreground and a female in the background drinking from a stream while standing on a reed-covered bank.^[5]

Mandarin ducks were chosen to replace the Chinese imperial dragon on the flag, in keeping with the British colonial tradition of using representative common local wildlife of a specific territory as the emblem on its colonial flag.^[3]

References