Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)

The Republic of Vietnam, otherwise known as South Vietnam. Three horizontal lines form the Chinese ideogram for the word 'south' so this is presumably a punning reference to the country's name: Vietnam means 'south land'. Come to think of it, this makes South Vietnam a candidate for our discussion earlier on tautological names - it means 'South south land'.
Stuart Notholt - 29 November 1995

The South Vietnamese flag is a little longer than standard flag and the strips are not that wide.

The three horizontal lines do not represent the Chinese ideogram. It was created by the last Emperor of Viet Nam (Bao Dai). The red stripes represent the blood line of three regions (Tonkin, Annam, & Cocinchnina). The deep yellow field represent the skin tone off the people.
Dai Vuong - 30 November 1997

The continuous horizontal lines is named "Ca`n", the North West direction.

The South direction is denoted by "Ly", with a discontinued middle line:

It was true that the first Vietnamese flag (Nguye^~n Dynasty) is a Ly flag. But it was promptly changed to a Ca`n flag because Ly has discontinuity, and the symbolism has changed.

Originally, The yellow background is the color of the Nguye^~n House, also is the color of the element Earth. The Red "Ly" symbol signifies the South, with red signifies Fire.

The flag was changed in 1944 to the current flag, which has some more modern ideology. The yellow still is the earth, but is also the color of the skin. The red stripes has the color of blood, represents 3 geographical regions of Vietnam.

This flag is older than the Republic of Vietnam (1954-1975). It was flown when Japan returns symbolic independence of Southern Vietnam and Northern Vietnam (was then a colony and a protectorate of France) to Vietnamese in 1944.

It continued to be used by various governments since then. It is only partially correct to say that this is the flag of Republic of Vietnam. Many still claim that it is the only flag which is worthy to represents Vietnamese.

It is a misnomer by foreigners to c