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![[Flag of Macao Special Region, 1999]](../images/m/mo.gif)
image by Zoltan Horvath,
30 June 2024
Macao: Index of Pages:
See also:
Macao adopted the flag prior to re-integration into China on 20 December 1999.
The flag is light green with a white lotus above a stylized bridge and water
and beneath an arc of five stars: one large and four smaller as on the flag of
China. Source: Flagmaster no. 80. Note that the
colour of the stars isn't mentioned.
Mark Sensen, 27 December 1995
On March 8, 1998, the Xinhua news agency (China) ran a feature on the
designer of the Macao flag. The flag selected to represent Macao after
its re-integration into China was designed by Xiao Hong, a professor of arts
and crafts at the Henan University. Xiao's entry was just one of over
1,000 considered for the new design. Xiao designed the flag after
reading a 600-word tourist guide on Macao. The design was further
improved before being approved in 1993. It was not until three years
after the flag was adopted that he first visited Macao. A deputy in the
Henan 163-member delegation to the ninth National People's Congress (NPC), he
became one of the more popular members when the lawmakers learned of his role
designing the flag.
Jan Oskar Engene, 09 March 1998
The flag of Macau is green with a lotus flower above the stylised Governador
Nobre de Carvalho Bridge and water in white, beneath a circular arc of five
golden five-pointed stars: one large star in the center of the arc with two
smaller stars on each side of the large star, each with a point angled directly
outward from the center of the common circle on which they lie.
The lotus
was chosen as the floral emblem of Macau. The Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge
is a bridge linking the Macau Peninsula and the island of Taipa. The bridge is
one of the most recognisable landmarks for the territory. The water beneath the
lotus and the bridge symbolise Macau's position as a port and its role played in
the territory. The five five-pointed stars echo the design of the flag of the
People's Republic of China, symbolising the relationship Macau has with its
sovereign state.
The flag was approved on 31 March 1993 by the National
People's Congress, and first used on 20 December 1999.
Zoltan Horvath,
30 June 2024
The Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region defines the flag:
http://www.imprensa.macau.gov.mo/bo/i/1999/leibasica/index_uk.asp
GB 17654-1999 Standard on Regional flag of Macao Special Administrative
Region gives details:
https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/GB_17654-1999
Zoltan Horvath, 30 June 2024
The protocol manual for the
London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual
London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations
for national flag designs. Each
NOC was sent an image of the flag,
including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced
a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may
not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what
the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Macao: PMS 342 green, 109 yellow. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal
version turned 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012
Other sources for colors:
The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives Pantone
color: PMS 3295 (green), and PMS 109 (yellow).
The Album des Pavillons
2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 5.) illustrates the
flag, but doesn’t give separate color specification, but these colors are listed
as follows.
Yellow: Pantone 116c, CMYK 0-20-90-0
Green: Pantone 339c, CMYK
91-00-60-0
The Album des Pavillons 2023 illustrates the flag, but doesn’t
give separate color specification, but these colors are listed as follows.
Yellow: Pantone 803c, CMYK 10-0-95-0, RGB 255-255-0
Green: Pantone 339c, CMYK
76-0-59-0, RGB 0-178-134
Vexilla Mundi illustrates the flag,
but doesn’t give any color specification.
Wikipedia refers to Basic Law and gives the
following color values:
Green: CMYK 95-0-17-54, Hex #067662, RGB 6-118-98
White:
CMYK 0-0-0-0, Hex #FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255
Yellow: CMYK 0-13-88-0, Hex #FFDF1E,
RGB 255-223-30
Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Green:
Hex #077662, RGB 7-118-98, CMYK 94-0-17-54, Pantone 3295 C, RAL 5021
White:
Hex #FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone N/A, RAL N/A
Yellow: Hex #FFDE23,
RGB 255-222-35, CMYK 0-13-86-0, Pantone 115 C, RAL 1018
Zoltan Horvath, 30 June 2024
![[Flag of Macao Special Region, 1999]](../images/m/mo).gif)
image by Zoltan Horvath,
30 June 2024
The Portuguese flags where lowered on November
19 in Macao, replaced by Chinese ones. The ceremonies where not very long, but
they where very symmetrical.
It all happened in a pavilion specially built for the occasion. Inside
there was a vast stage with a tribune in the background and two speaker's
platforms and 4 flag poles in the foreground. It was a very symmetrical
ceremony: in the viewer's right it was the "Portuguese sector" with
everything (and everybody) Portuguese in it, and in the left the "Chinese
sector" with the vice-versa.
Behind the tribune there was a wall where were hanging two big national
flags: Portugal in the viewer's right, China in the viewer's left. The
speaker's platforms where also identified by national symbols, this time the
coat of arms. In the case of the Portuguese coat of arms, is was the minor
arms (therefore without laurel and scroll) on a green background, which is
unusual.
The poles where sophisticated: despite the ceremony being held indoors, the
flags flew through a system that blows air through the interior of the pole.
Interesting that the flags only begin flying when they reach the very top of
the pole, just hanging sadly in the rest of the "travel" along the
pole.
The poles where, as I said, 4: two in the viewer's left and two in the
viewer's right. The two poles closer to the center where higher than those at
the sides. The difference was about one meter or something similar. Those
where the poles where the national flags flew Those at the sides where used to
fly the "municipal" flag of Macao under
Portuguese administration, that is, the flag of the Leal Senado and
the flag of the Special Autonomous Region.
In the beginning only the Portuguese flags flew. And the ceremony begun.
First, entered 3 members of the military forces of each country, the
Portuguese empty-handed and the Chinese carrying the Chinese national flag,
immediately followed by 3 members of the security forces (i.e., police) of
each country, again the Portuguese empty-handed and the Chinese carrying the
flag of the SAR. Later on, when local midnight approached, the Portuguese flag
and the flag of the city of Macao where lowered simultaneously under the
sounds of the Portuguese national anthem. After midnight, the Chinese flag and
the new flag of Macao where hoisted also simultaneously and also under the
sounds of the Chinese anthem. Only after that, the Portuguese flags where
folded and carried away by the military and security people in a mirror image
of what happened previously when the Chinese flags arrived.
Jorge Candeias, 19 November 1999