The Directorate-General of Highways on Friday said it launched an online survey to gather feedback from the public about three-letter combinations for vehicle license plates to be issued next year.
Running until April 30, the survey asks for feedback on 26 combinations that might evoke negative sentiment, the agency said.
The combinations for which it seeks feedback include CCP, a common acronym for the Chinese Communist Party; CCC, which is pronounced “die, die, die” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese); CCK, which sounds like “go to hell” in Hoklo; PEE, for the word’s meaning in English; and CCR, which is the acronym for “cross-cultural romance,” an apparently derogatory expression used in Taiwan to refer to Taiwanese women who date or marry foreign men.
Photo courtesy of the Directorate-General of Highways
“If there are several people concerned about any particular combination, then we will include that in our report and won’t use that combination,” Motor Vehicle Section Deputy Director Wei Wu-sheng (魏武盛) said.
Vehicle license plates issued next year are to have three letters followed by four numbers, and those for two-wheelers are to have three letters followed by three numbers.
The survey seeks to help the agency ameliorate drivers’ concerns over license plate letter combinations that are considered offensive based on cultural or personal factors, Wei said.
Last year, respondents to the survey expressed concern over the letter combinations BYE and BUG, while in 2021 the combinations ERR and LAY were considered problematic, he said.
The combination NTR was also rejected in a previous survey, as it resembles the term “netorare,” meaning “to cheat” in Japanese, Wei said.
“Every combination we do not use leads to 9,000 fewer license plates that we can issue,” he said, adding that the survey’s results would be taken into account for license plates issued in the next two years.
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