News Brief: place names is election issue

DPP candidate calls for checks of Hakka road sign names

Taipei Times, 23/09/2011
[link: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/09/23/2003513988]

Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidate Yiong Cong-ziin holds up examples in Miaoli County of Hakka place names where incorrect characters have been used, often significantly changing the meaning.
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times

Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Hakka affairs department, yesterday urged the government to conduct a thorough review of road signs for Hakka place names, saying they are often written using incorrect characters that significantly alter their meaning.

“Driving around Miaoli County, you will find road signs set up by either the county government or the Directorate-General of Highways using the wrong characters for these Hakka places,” Yiong said by telephone. “This shows the government’s lack of care and a disrespect for local culture.”

What’s more, these wrong signs often alter the original meaning of the names of those places, with this wrong information being passed on to visitors and the younger generation, he said.

“For example, the Xie’ai Ancient Trail (楔隘古道) in Miaoli’s Shitan Township (獅潭) has been written as ‘Xi’ai Ancient Trail’ (錫隘古道) for decades,” said Yiong, who is also running as the DPP’s legislative candidate in Miaoli County.

“‘Xie’ai’, or ‘shiap-ai’ in Hakka, refers to a supportive post placed between major defensive posts along the boundary between the Aboriginal domain and non--Aboriginal domain in the past when ethnic tensions were high,” he said.

However, writing it out as “xi’ai” (錫隘) might lead some people to think that it used to be a tin mine because the character “xi” (錫) means “tin,” Yiong said.

There’s also a mountain in Dahu Township (大湖) called Yaoposhan (鷂婆山), meaning “mountain of eagles,” because it’s a place frequented by eagles, he said.

“Yaopo” is pronounced as “yo’po” in Hakka.

However, the official road sign uses the character “yao” (耀) instead of “yao” (鷂), which is pronounced the same way in Mandarin, but are two different characters that differ in meaning, Yiong said.

“The government should make an effort to survey all Hakka place names and correct all the mistakes to better preserve local culture,” he said.

At a separate setting, Chen Ban (陳板), a long-time researcher and advocate for the preservation of Hakka culture, said that he fully supported the idea that official signs should carry the original and correct place names, as a way to pass on the culture and history of a place.

Chen said he heads a project that has been conducting a survey of Hakka place names for six years now for the Council for Hakka Affairs.

“I would like to call on the council to take action and change these road signs, especially as we’ve been doing this project for six years now,” he said.