Discussions and Updates of the Taiwan Flag Issue ft. Relationships with WPML at WordCamp Asia 2024

The beginning of the story

All began on Jan 25, 2024, 1.5 months earlier than WordCamp Asia 2024(Mar 7-9). I’ve got an invitation from Dean Jones¹, Partnerships Marketing Team Lead at OnTheGoSystems(the company name of the famous plugin WPML) to make a reservation for a meeting at the booth of WPML at WCAsia 2024.

OnTheGoSystems, the company name of the famous plugin WPML. I'll call it in WPML since their brand name for the sponsorship of WordCamp Asia 2024 is WPML.

The issue of Selecting Chinese Traditional Will Display The Flag of China But Not The Flag of Taiwan(ROC)

I took this important one as the top priority in our meeting in case the time was not enough, the one I want to discuss with WPML in person seizing the chance the invited meeting with WPML at this flagship WordCamp in Taiwan. This is also the only topic we have kept in touch on since Mar 8. (Please see the other 2 topics near the end of this post).

This issue has been troubling users in Taiwan for 10 years maybe. Here’s the National flag (president.gov.tw) FYI. Below are the original descriptions sent to Dean before the meeting.

At the beginning at least 10+ years ago, the flag image attached to WPML was correct.  It became strange when the audience from China kept pressuring WPML, and the flag image of Taiwan turned into the same one as the flag of China.


Yeah, we all know that users can upload a custom flag image to a certain folder, but it’s a huge block to most users.  It also creates bad feelings among users in Taiwan.  I think it should be corrected starting from WordCamp Asia 2024.  People in Taiwan don’t like to keep pressure by sending plenty of emails, but it doesn’t mean that the issue could remain still.
It will be great for WPML to earn applause matter on-site at the event or on all social media including FB groups.  Many Taiwanese users may consider WPML as the top solution instead of turning to Polylang or TranslatePress.

I understand there were some reasons for WPML to make this old decision 10+ years ago based on some complicated international background, but it’s time to review the policy and make a suitable decision now.

I don’t want to keep pressure on you Dean my friend or Amir² the CEO of WPML, but I have advice for you and hope it will be accepted to update it.  All the Taiwanese locally or globally including me will appreciate that WPML could make something different and encouraged.

By Green Yang, Feb 29, 2024

The 40mins meeting, the precious chance

I told Dean “I’m afraid my time won’t be my own time during WCAsia 2024 since I’m an organizer, but I will prepare 2~3 topics to email you by Feb” Then, I sent 3 topics including the most important one to Dean, reserve a time on their event calendar, and we had a 40mins long meeting at the venue.

The key people and local supports

People from left to right in this photo are – Me, Dean, Stanley⁴, and Richer⁵. Stanley and Richer were coincidently around the WPML booth, then grabbed by me to join the meeting together. The reason was simple – I have known they are more professional at coding and localization in Taiwan’s local community. They did provide some helpful suggestions to let us think from engineering perspectives to resolve and improve it more precisely.

“The issue of selecting Traditional Chinese will display the flag of China but not the flag of Taiwan(ROC),” is the most important topic that I want to discuss with WPML in person seizing the chance the invited meeting with WPML at this flagship WordCamp in Taiwan.

The efforts, the well-organized info from Dean

Here I want to say many thanks to Dean first. For the care, patience, and well-organized info on the tricky, serious, and highly expected topic about the possibilities of handling languages and flags of countries including Taiwan.

Sincere commitment and support from the founder of WPML

Amir the founder sent me a quick email two days after the end of WCAsia 2024, even though they were still on vacation in Taiwan.

Thank you again for explaining to us the issues with the flags. I want to update you on what we’re planning for WPML.

1. In the next release (WPML 4.8), we will have a quick and temporary change for the Chinese flag. Instead of a country, we’ll display the name of the language. This is the best that we can do in a short period of time.
2. In the following release (WPML 4.9), we will implement a complete mechanism that let’s clients choose their language and then their country. Accordingly, WPML will set the correct locale (for loading .mo files) and the correct flag.

I hope that this helps and will make the very-nice Taiwanese community at ease with how WPML works with Chinese language.

by Amir Helzer, March 11, 2024

It’s a rare opportunity, especially for us locals in Taiwan who would love to get in touch and have got in touch, discussing topics deeply with the representatives of WPML. It’s been more than an amazing week! I believe they have focused on this issue of flags and the Chinese languages, and they are nice people. Therefore, I have never been worried about the process being dragged. Besides, I don’t want to push when I know they have projected the vacations right after WCAsia 2024.

Conclusion: upcoming updates on near and mid-term solutions

On Mar 27, 2024, Dean sent me the latest email with a more comprehensive conclusion almost right after or still during his vacation. I have to say they’ve done their best on this topic as below descriptions.

1. Please see the attached image of the temporary solution we will apply to all Chinese languages in WPML 4.8.
   
   
2. The permanent solution we will apply in WPML 4.9 will allow clients to choose their language and then set their country/flag as desired. This means that WPML will no longer force any language to be associated with a flag. This will apply to all language and flag combinations. This is an entirely new feature for WPML, so we will need to assign development resources to complete it. Once we have an early version of this, we will send it to you for your exclusive feedback.
3. In the temporary solution, the image for all Chinese language variations will display ‘中文’.

by Dean, Mar 27, 2024

It’s great to receive the news that they had another good trip meanwhile I received further answers to my questions that were for following up on the topic. As we all understand the permanent solution they shared would take much more time and resources, I keep positively thinking and waiting for the upcoming updates from WPML.

Folks, please don’t hesitate to express your thoughts or suggestions about any topics to WPML(OnTheGoSystems). In this case, I have tried in my way, and then WPML crews have responded kindly, looked into it, and released their solutions based on their professions combined with the feedback from the local community through the precious WordCamp Asia 2024 in Taiwan!

The other 2 topics

Below are the other 2 topics sent in the same email in advance. All were ordered by difficulty from easy to hard, but I took the most important one only for sure. Both of these topics are pending because we all have no time during the event even on the whole Mar. Below are the original descriptions sent to Dean before the meeting.

1. The simplification with fool-proof to the slug translations for taxonomy(categories, tags)Why should the plugin not foolproof or lock the language code name in the slug since it can be recognized by not only machines but also humans?
   
   
   On the back end of “Taxonomy Translation”
   
   
   I’d like to see all the slugs of languages except the default language with the correct language code names automatically instead of checking and implementing them one by one manually.
   
   
2. Is it possible to separate the URL part(e.g. /tw/) from the relations with language code and hreflang?
   I had tried it once and then I realized the cost of replacing “zh-hant” with “tw” on URLs.  It also made the auto-translation function disabled since the code had been changed to be unsupported.
   I know the design is based on the reasons of international rules, but it will be friendly for normal visitors to see the national codes instead of the language codes on URLs.
   

By Green Yang, Feb 29, 2024

Unexpected kindness: last-minute assistance

For the final hours of WordCamp Asia 2024, my last self-appointed task was to assist in securing an unused valid ticket for the WPML founder’s wife to attend the After Party. After the meaningful meeting with WPML near their booth, in the final hours of the next day(final day) of the event, I suddenly wanted to try to do something to get another ticket legally for another important person to access the After Party.

In short, a stroke of luck came from my sponsor teammate Nami who had an extra ticket once she understood this story from me during the closing remark of WCAsia 2024! She promptly sent it to me, and with only limited contact methods available, I quickly forwarded it. The situation was swiftly resolved.

And yes, we met with the sweet results at the After Party, then took a group photo for sure!

People from left to right in this photo are – Dario⁷, Me, Amir, Amir’s wife.

Have any questions or implements? Feel free to Contact Us – WPML 🙂

Credits

1. Dean Jones – Partnerships Marketing Manager at OnTheGoSystems ↩︎
2. Amir Helzer – Founder at OnTheGoSystems ↩︎
3. 您好！我是田小蓉 (g618.name) ↩︎
4. Stanley Wang (@bluestan) – WordPress user profile | WordPress.org ↩︎
5. Richer Yang (@fantasyworld) – WordPress user profile | WordPress.org ↩︎
6. fliesyan 的相簿 | Flickr ↩︎
7. Dario Jazbec Hrvatin – Content Manager at OnTheGoSystems ↩︎

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