壯圍鄉 Zhuangwei Township, Yilan County

[Explanations of place name origins are quite the vogue. The photo shows a board outside the township office in Zhuangwei, with a history of the town’s name in both i) Chinese and ii) English. Bizarrely, the two accounts are substantially different.

i) [translated] In earlier times, Wu Sha (吳沙) led men to clear land for cultivation. Later, to express his gratitude to and reward the strong people [壯民] for their efforts, he divided the land and gave [part] to them, for which it is called 民壯圍 (lit. “people strong surround”).

ii) [original] Minzhuangwei was the old name of Zhuangwei Township. Looking into the history of this town it was in the early days inhabited mainly by Pingpu Tribes. In 1802, Wu Hua (Wu Sha’s nephew) sent his follower Chen Meng Li to open and clear this area.

Abe and Tsai et al. (as well as Wikipedia’s Chinese-language entry) broadly accord with the former; but Wu Sha died in 1798 (as Wikipedia notes elsewhere) before Han Chinese settled this part of Yilan, and it was indeed nephew Wu Hua who rewarded the “strong people for their efforts”.]

Zhuangwei (壯圍; lit. “strong encirclement”) Township was formally called 民壯圍 (Mdn. minzhuangwei; lit. “people strong encirclement”): a 城圍 “walled encirclement” named in honor of the 壯民 (Mdn.: zhuang min; “strong people”) who accompanied Wu Sha (吳沙) to settle today’s Yilan in 1796 (for more details see Toucheng). Minzhuangwei was established in 1802 by Wu’s nephew Wu Hua (吳化) following his uncle’s death in 1798.

This “city wall” was a 土圍 (Mdn: tu-wei; earthen dyke) perhaps reinforced with a bamboo fence.

民 (Mdn.: min; “people”) was dropped in 1920 under Japanese rule.


Chuangwei (壯圍) alternative romanisation for Zhuangwei.
Jhuangwei (壯圍) alternative romanisation for Zhuangwei.




Text and photos © Jiyue Publications