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Lawmakers urge change to names of cities' streets

"Some of the streets named after Chinese cities, such as Dihua, now seem extremely bizarre because the People's Republic of China revised these cities' names."

Chiu Yeong-jen, DPP legislator

Streets in Taipei and Kaohsiung named after places in China should be changed to reflect the fact the government no longer plans to retake that country, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.

"Streets in the two special municipalities should be reviewed, since many of them were named with a sense of the `Greater China' ideology," Legislator Chiu Yeong-jen (邱永仁) said.

After it withdrew from China in 1949, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government changed the names of streets in Taipei to the names of places in China, Chiu said.

"Starting from Chongqing South Road, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek named the road and streets according to the Chinese map to display his political ideology. Chengde Road is one example of where they had to change the name of the road, from Chilan Road," Chiu said.

He said the same had happened in Kaohsiung to comply with Chiang's vow of recapturing China.

"But some of the streets named after Chinese cities, such as Dihua, now seem extremely bizarre because the People's Republic of China revised these cities' names after taking over China," Chiu said.

The Ministry of Interior should think about changing the names of streets and roads across the country in an effort to create Taiwan-centered awareness, Chiu said.

Legislator Lan Mei-chin (藍美津) said the precedent had been set with the renaming of the historic Chiehshou Road in Taipei to Ketagalan Boulevard.

When she was a member at the Taipei City Council, Lan brought up the idea of changing the name of Chiehshou Road, which means "Chiang Kai-shek's longevity," to Ketagalan to commemorate the Aboriginal tribe.

Then Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) implemented the change in 1996.

"Local governments need to sense the trend of localization and come up with modern ideas," Lan said.

A Taipei City Government official surnamed Huang disagreed with the lawmakers' claim that roads and streets in Taipei reflected a Greater China ideology.

"The Taipei City Government has been working on updating road names. Civic Boulevard is one case. But the name change ultimately needs residents' approval and therefore the task could be time-consuming," she said.

Lin Yu-chin (林裕欽), deputy director of Kaohsiung City Government's Civil Affairs Bureau, however endorsed the lawmakers' view.

He said that Kaohsiung was considering conducting a review of street names to make them more international.
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