Wugu (五股) District, New Taipei City

Today's Wugu (五股; lit. "Five Shares"）is the result of the 1920 Japanese colonial government's contraction of 五股坑 (Mdn. Wu-gu-keng; lit. "Five Shares Gorge")

Both Abe Akiyoshi (1938) and Tsai Pei-hui et al. (2004) assume that the 五股 refers to "five shares" , that is, the five families who originally invested in opening the land here for cultivation.

More recently, however, history professor Yin Chang-yi (尹章義) has traced back a land contract to 1773 that records the village's name as 五穀坑 (Mdn. Wu-gu-keng; lit. "Five Grains Gorge"), which is immediately suggestive of the wish for 五穀豐收 (Mdn. wu-gu feng-shou; "five grains good harvest".

This, he says, was later simplified, firstly to 五谷坑 (Mdn. Wu-gu-keng; lit. "Five Valleys Gorge") and finally to 五股坑.



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Guanyin (觀音) District, Taoyuan City

Guanyin (觀音; Hakka: Gon-rhim; lit. "[Bodhisattva] Guanyin") District's name dates back to 1860 when farm workers from Shipailing (石牌嶺; in today's Xinwu 新屋 District) found a rock in a stream that they believed closely resembled the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanshiyin (觀世音: lit. "[The one who] Perceives the Sounds of the World"). They took it, worshipped it and, finding it efficacious, built a Stone Guanyin Temple (石觀音寺; later renamed the 甘泉寺 Ganquan Temple).

From this, the area took the name Shiguanyin (石觀音), which was abbreviated by the Japanese authorities in 1920 to the current Guanyin.



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Xinpu (新埔) Township, Hsinchu County

Xinpu Township (新埔; Hakka: Sin-phu-tsun / Sin-bu-zhin; lit. "New Plain") was originally hunting grounds of Taokas (道卡斯) plains aborigines, whose name was transliterated as 吧哩嘓 (Hoklo: Palikok).

Han-Chinese immigration to this area was limited and unsystematic before the mid-18th century. This changed following flooding of Hsinchu in 1747, however, and settlers were encouraged to move into new areas including today's Xinpu.

Construction of the Fangliao irrigation channels (枋寮圳) in 1766 further increased its cultivztion potential. The name Xinpu was in used from at least the 1780s to indicate "新開發的河埔地" (newly developed river plains land).

埔 (Mdn. pu; "plain / flatland") is used in Hoklo Taiwanese po and Hakka phu where Mandarin is more likely to use 平原 . 埔 appears widely in place names in western Taiwan.



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Qionglin (芎林) Township, Hsinchu County

Qionglin (芎林; Hakka: Lim-hiong; lit. "Crepe-myrtle Wood") was orininally called 九芎林 (Mdn. Jiu-qiong-lin) and named after the woods (林) of Taiwan crepe myrtle trees (九芎; Lagerstroemia subcostata) that grew locally.

In 1920 the name was shortened to its present form by removing the 九 (Mdn. jiu; "nine"). This was presumably to make it a two-character name, but it has also been suggested that 九芎 wasn't chosen because it sound similar to 久窮 (Mdn. jiu qiong) meaning "long-term poverty".



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List of Taiwan's indigenous ethnic groups

Taiwan currently recognizes 16 ethnic groups of mountains indigenous peoples and around 18 groups of Plains peoples (some of which are no longer extant), though the situation is fluid.

Division into "Mountain" (高山族; earlier 高砂族 Takasago-zoku during the Period of Japanese Rule 1895~1945) and "Plains" (平埔族) aborigines perhaps has more to do with their level of assimilation / sinicization at the arbitrary date of 1895 when the Japanese authorities and academics began to investigate the peoples of their new colony. Some groups, like the Kavalan and Thao may be better described as plains-dwelling.

Mountains indigenous peoples

Amis (Pangcah, 'Amis) 阿美 (sometimes previously recorded as 阿眉族)
Atayal (Tayal, Tayan) 泰雅 (大么)
Bunun (Bunun) 布農 (武崙)
Kanakanavu (Kanakanavu) 卡那卡那富 (previously classified as Tsou)
Kavalan (Kebalan, Kbaran) 噶瑪蘭 or 加禮宛 (previously classified as Amis)
Paiwan (Payuan) 排灣
Puyuma (Pinuyumayan) 卑南 or 比努優瑪樣 (彪馬)
Rukai (Drekay) 魯凱
Saaroa (Hla'alua) 拉阿魯哇 (四社生蕃) (previously classified as Tsou)
Saisiyat (Say-Siyat) 賽夏 or 獅設
Sakizaya (Sakizaya) 撒奇萊雅 or 奇萊族 (previously classified as Amis)
Seediq (Seediq) 賽德克 (紗績) (previously classified as Atayal)
Taroko (Truku) 太魯閣族 （タロコ族） (previously classified as Atayal)
Thao (Thao, Ngan) 邵 or 水沙連 (previously classified as Tsou)
Tsou (Cou) 鄒 or曹 (新高)
Yami (Tao) 達悟 or 雅美

Plains indigenous peoples

Arikun (Arikun) 阿立昆 (sometimes classified as Hoanya)
Babuza (Babuza, Poavasa) 貓霧拺 or 巴布薩
Basay (Basay, Basai) 巴賽 or 馬塞 (sometimes classified as Ketagalan)
Hoanya (Hoanya) 洪雅, 和安雅 or 荷安耶 (sometimes divided into Lloa and Arikun)
Kaxabu (Kaxabu, Kahapu) 噶哈巫 (sometimes classified as Pazeh)
Ketagalan (Ketagalan) 凱達格蘭
Kulon (Kulon) 龜崙
Lloa (Lloa) 羅亞 or 魯羅阿 (sometimes classified Hoanya)
Luilang (Luilang) 雷朗 (sometimes classified as Ketagalan)
Makatao (Makatao, Tao) 馬卡道 (sometimes classified as Siraya)
Papora (Papora, Vupuran) 拍瀑拉, 巴布拉 or 巴波拉
Pazeh (Pazéh, Pazih) 巴宰, 巴則海 or 拍宰海
Qauqaut (Qauqaut) 猴猴
Siraya (Siraya) 西拉雅 or 希萊耶
Taivoan (Taivoan, Taivuan) 大武壠 or 大滿 (sometimes classified as Siraya)
Taokas (Taokas) 道卡斯, 斗葛 or 大甲
Favorlang (Favorlang, Vavorolang) 虎尾壟, 費佛朗, 華武壟, 法波蘭 or 法佛朗
Trobiawan (Trobiawan, TuRbuan) 哆囉美遠 or 哆囉布安 (sometimes classified as Ketagalan)

Main source: Wikipedia

Additional information from Council of Indigenous Peoples:

Pinuyumayan
Taivoan (大滿族)



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Guanxi (關西) Township, Hsinchu County

Guanxi (關西; lit. "[Mountain] Pass West") was formerly known as 鹹菜甕 (Mdn. Xian-cai-weng; lit; "Salted / Pickled Vegetable Urn"). Some sources refer to it as having been 鹹菜棚 (Mdn. Xian-cai-peng; lit. "Salted Vegetable Awning /Shed") or 鹹菜硼 (in which the "shed" is presumably now made of stone 石 rather then wood 木; possibly a local Hakka or Hoklo usage, as the dictionary definition of 硼 is "boron").

In 1920 during the Period of Japanese Rule, this was changed to 關西 (Jpn. Kansai) as this was similar to the Hakka pronunciation of 鹹菜 [MC: though the Japanese pronunciation of this is just as close, so presumably 鹹菜 was considered inelegant, moreover, the Japanese authorities were cutting Taiwan's place names down to two characters at this time].

Before both of these, the area had a succession of names for short periods. The first attempt by Han-Chinese to cultivate these aboriginal lands was in the 1790s by Quanzhou Fujianese, who called the village 美里 (Mdn. Mei-li; lit. "Beautiful Neighborhood"). Due to harrassment by Atayal aborigines, however, they gave up their land rights almost immediately. Next to try were members of the Wei familiy (sinicized aborigines from Hsinchu who took the Chinese surname Wei 衛), who recruited potential tenant farmers in Xinpu (新埔). They called the village 新興 (Mdn. Xin-xing; lit. "New Rising"), and when the land reclamation was complete and the village grew into a town, this was changed to 鹹菜甕 (and different but similarly-pronounced characters) and, as noted, 鹹菜硼.



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Jianshi (尖石) Township, Hsinchu County

Jianshi (尖石; Hailu Hakka: ziam-shag; lit. "Sharp Stone") is as its label suggests, there being a large pointed rock rising from the riverbed near the confluence of the 那羅溪 (Mdn. Naluo River) and 嘉樂溪 (Mdn. Jiale River).

The indigenous Atayal (泰雅) people called the area Nahuy, which meant 火之地 ("Land of Fire") or 火炭之地 ("Land of Charcoal") (source here). The Atayal of this area, like in many others, resisted incorporation into the Qing-dynasty Chinese state and were only subdued during the Period of Japanese Rule (1895~1945).



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