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Dejiao

Te Chiao

image by Miles Li, 6 April 2017

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Flags and Religion

Dejiao 德教, also known in English as the Moral Uplifting Society, is a syncretic religion encompassing Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. Founded in Chaoyang, Guangdong Province, China in 1939, and now mainly active among the ethnic Chinese communities in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, it also has a presence in Hong Kong.

The Dejiao flag is yellow with three blue horizontal stripes (usually straight, but wavy versions also exist) at the middle third, and a white globe with red lines bearing the letter "De" (德) in blue at the centre. Yellow represents purity, blue represents patriotism; the three stripes represent Heaven-Earth-Humans; the three longitude lines represent the three relationships (namely, Monarch-Subject, Parent-Child, Husband-Wife); and the five latitude lines represent the five religions.

Dejiao should not be confused with the Tiandejiao 天德教 (full name: Tiande shengjiao 天德聖教), a similarly syncretic religion of a separate origin with a different flag.
Miles Li, 6 April 2017