Lions Club International (LCI) and its Taiwan chapter have come to a compromise over the design of the chapter's membership flag, the chapter said yesterday.
In April, LCI headquarters in Chicago decided to remove the Republic of China flag from the membership flag of the chapter and changed its name from "ROC Lions Club" to "China Taiwan Lions Club."
The Taiwan chapter said it was not consulted first and that the move was made under pressure from China. In May, the first two chapters in China, in Guangdong and Shenzhen, were added to LCI's more than 44,600 clubs in 189 countries.
Wang Maw-hsiung (
"Though we find it [the LCI's decision concerning the membership flag design] unsatisfactory," Wang said, "we've accepted it grudgingly."
Wang said that the two chapters in China had originally been allowed to include the design of China's national flag and had insisted that the Taiwan chapter change its flag to feature only the ROC's national flower, the plum blossom.
"While one could say that the LCI has softened its stance [toward Taiwan] by not letting chapters in mainland China use the Chinese national flag in the design of their membership flag, the Taiwan chapter is still being treated unfavorably since we were asked to change our original membership flag to something else," Wang said.
Now, Wang said, the membership flag of the China chapter would have a plain red background -- similar to China's national flag, with the LCI's logo on it; while that of the Taiwan chapter would be one carrying the colors of the ROC national flag -- red, white and blue.
"In other words, it looks like the French flag, with three broad strips of blue, white and red," Wang said.
"But instead of running vertically, the the three strips on ours are horizontal."
Wang said the compromise might only be temporary and that the chapter was now focussing on overturning the headquarters' decision to alter the name to "China Taiwan Lions Club."
The organization's Hong Kong and Macao chapters are called "China Hong Kong" and "China Macao," and the two new members have been named "China Guangdong" and "China Shenzhen."
Wang said the LCI headquarters had caved into pressure from these chapters and in the process relegated the Taiwan chapter to become part of China.
The organization will discuss the complaint over the name lodged by Taiwan at a meeting of its International Board Directors to be held in Osaka, Japan, on Sunday.
The Taiwan chapter has also decided to take legal action against the Chicago-based organization for disrespecting and neglecting the voice of its Taiwanese members.
Earlier this week, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) openly encouraged the Taiwan chapter to stand up to LCI headquarters.
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