From Takow to Kaohsiung

Love River (愛河), Kaohsiung City

Originally called Takow River (打狗川; possibly a refence to the Makatau plains aborigines or to a Siraya aboriginal word for “bamboo forest”; see Kaohsiung), this was changed during the Period of Japanese Rule to 高雄川 (Jpn. Takaogawa; lit. "Lofty Hero River"), which was preserved by the incoming KMT-led ROC administration in 1945, albeit using the Mandarin pronunciation Gaoxiong Chuan, and romanized as “Kaohsiung Chuan”.

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Its transformation to the romantic “Love River” is said to date from two events early in the postwar period. Firstly a typhoon damaged the advertising board of the “Love River Cruise" (愛河遊船所) leaving just the two characters 愛河. Secondly, a local journalist went to cover the suicide of a young couple who had drowned in the river and illustrated his report with a photograph of the damaged sign.

The river soon gained a new nickname, which was later adopted as its official name, and which survived attempts (perhaps by Kaohsiung’s mayor, perhaps by first lady Soong Mei-ling, 宋美齡) to add the character 仁 (Mdn. ren; “benevolence”), thus making it the Ren-ai River (“Benevolence & Love”; two of the Confucian “eight virtues” 八德, see Bade District, Taoyuan) to commemorate the birthday of President Chiang Kai-shek.



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