From Takow to Kaohsiung

Interesting paper on postwar naming of Taipei City streets (and more)

Onoma 51
Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences
ISSN: 0078-463X; e-ISSN: 1783-1644
Journal homepage: https://onomajournal.org/
From Cairo to the nationalistic geography of China: Street-naming in Taipei City immediately after WWII (here)
DOI: 10.34158/ONOMA.51/2016/4

Peter Kang
Dept. of Taiwan and Regional Studies
National Donghwa University
TAIWAN

To cite this article: Kang, Peter. 2016. From Cairo to the nationalistic geography of China: Street-naming in Taipei City immediately after WWII.
Onoma 51, 45–74. DOI: 10.34158/ONOMA.51/2016/4
© Onoma and the author.

Abstract: This paper examines the outcome of two street-renamings in Taipei, the largest city of Taiwan, immediately after World War Two when the Chinese Nationalists, representing the victorious Allied forces, took over Taiwan from Japan. The Taiwan Administrative Office conducted the first street-renaming in June 1946 and the second street-renaming in January 1947. The first wave was characterized by the themes of local reminiscence and cityscape, anti-Japanese significance, and the ethos of Chinese nationalism. The second instance of renaming predominately features Chinese nationalistic ideas in that the streets were renamed after geographical names of China proper, we well as Tibet, East Turkestan (or Uyghurstan), Mongolia and Manchuria. This was a common practice in 1947, and one that persists in present times. The paper discusses the state ideologies behind the aforementioned two types of street-naming by examining the ideas and the spatial layouts of the two naming practices.

Keywords: Taipei, street-naming, Chinese nationalism, Taiwan.