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-- Working draft for upcoming book by Mark Caltonhill, author of "Private Prayers and Public Parades - Exploring the religious life of Taipei" and other works.

Saturday 22 January 2022

Wuri (烏日) District, Taichung City

> .....................Wuri Police Station (photo Wikipedia)

The origin of the district’s name, Wuri (烏日; Hoklo: O-jit; lit. “Crow /Black Sun”) is not clear. Ssuggestions include:
i) changed characters from earlier 湖日 (Hoklo: Ô͘-jit; lit. “Lake Sun”) supposedly from a distant view of the sun over a lake, or
ii) perhaps from the way the river course meandered, creating an (凹入 Hoklo: Au-jip; lit. “indentation”) in the earth; or
iii) transliteration of a long-forgotten aboriginal name since a great many local names in this area derive from Plains Aborigine language(s).

[MC: This last may well be supported by the fact that the character 烏, which originally depicted a crow, and later meant "black" since crows are archetypically black, is commonly used merely for its phonetic value in transliterating place names (see e.g. 烏來 Wulai in New Taipei County)]



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