The bestowing of red pennants, or “jinqi,” has evolved from a simple acknowledgment of appreciation to a token for career advancement and even a means to subvert authority
When the British rock band Suede rolled into the Shanghai Stadium on June 1 to prepare for their concert, they were met with a red velvet pennant with golden tassels hanging by an ironing board backstage. On the fabric, gleaming golden letters in both Chinese and English read, “Sending our deepest love to Suede. We all become the beautiful ones in each other’s life. From all your fans in China.”
Receiving such a gift from fans for the first time, Suede’s bass player Mat Osman tweeted, “I decree that all Suede backstages from now on should contain…a Champions League style personalized pennant.”
What Osman didn’t realize, is that the longstanding Chinese tradition of gifting pennants, or jinqi (锦旗), has little to do with sport (despite their aesthetic similarities to soccer crests often exchanged between teams before matches). Instead, pennants, always featuring gold characters on red velvet, are symbols of honor and respect with ancient roots, and were once reserved for soldiers and doctors.
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