San Jose leaders to ask nonprofit to add South Vietnam flag to emoji list

CBS News

26-05-2025

As people continue to use emojis more and more frequently, the options are becoming even more important.
San Jose leaders are now asking a nonprofit that standardizes emojis to include the flag of South Vietnam.
The flag is already prominent in the city. At the Vietnamese Heritage Garden, three flags billow overhead: the American flag, the California flag, and a yellow flag with three red stripes representing South Vietnam. Many refugees, like District 7 City Councilmember Bien Doan, still resonate with it.
"By having this freedom flag, it means so much to them," said Doan about some of the Vietnamese community.
Doan immigrated to the U.S. back in 1975, right around the end of the Vietnam War.
"We had to," Said Doan about his experience. "The communists had taken over Saigon and if we didn't get out, my father would have been imprisoned for a long time."
It's a story shared by many Vietnamese immigrants from that time.
The flag of South Vietnam is no longer an official flag, but still remains a powerful symbol of anti-communism and cultural heritage. But on most standard smartphones, the only option is the flag representing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Doan's team found this out the hard way.
"It started out with a mistake," explained Doan. "One of my vendors punched up Vietnam and an emoji popped up with the red flag and the yellow star, and the community got a little upset about that. Within five minutes, we pulled it down, but by having that it brought it to my attention."
He realized just how many people felt a lack of representation.
That encouraged him to lead an effort to formally request that the nonprofit that standardizes emojis, Unicode Consortium, based in Mountain View, add the flag of South Vietnam.
"We got 11 of us to sign on," said Doan. "Meaning all of the councilmembers, including the mayor."
There are already more than 200 flag options on the emoji keyboard. He says this isn't about taking away the Vietnam flag that's already there, but adding another choice.
"If you look at many other emojis, you have many, many different options, and why can't we have that?" questioned Doan. "The freedom of choice, and that's what America is all about."
Next, the city manager's office will bring the request to Unicode. Doan hopes to meet with leaders there.
"We'll have a meeting with Unicode as well and tell them what is the story, how proud we are, what is the sacrifice," said Doan. "How do we bring this forward so when people punch up Vietnam, they will have a choice?"
Unicode Consortium clients include tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. They did not respond at the time of this report.