Checheng

Checheng Township
Checheng Township
Traditional Chinese	車城鄉
Hanyu Pinyin	Chēchéng Xiāng
Wade–Giles	Ch'e1-ch'eng2 Hsiang1
Pha̍k-fa-sṳ	Tshâ-sàng-hiông
Hokkien POJ	Chha-siâⁿ-hiong/Chhia-siâⁿ-hiong

Checheng Township
車城鄉

Chai-cheng
Checheng Township; 車城鄉 Chai-cheng
Rural township
	Checheng Township in Pingtung County
Location	Pingtung County, Taiwan
Area
• Total	50 km2 (20 sq mi)
Population (February 2024)
• Total	8,002
• Density	160/km2 (410/sq mi)

22°04′47″N 120°44′45″E / 22.079754°N 120.745727°E / 22.079754; 120.745727

Checheng Township^[1] is a rural township in Pingtung County, Taiwan.^[2]

Names and etymology

The name of the town. Checheng (Chinese: 車城; pinyin: Chēchéng) combines the Chinese character for "cart", 車 today used to refer to cars and other motorized transport, and 城 which is used in words for walled fortresses and cities, but which in the Taiwanese historical context refers to a town with an earthen security berm.

With the arrival of ethnic Chinese on Taiwan, the native Paiwan name of Kabeyawan was transliterated as Ku-piah-oan (龜壁灣) in the Taiwanese Hokkien language of these new settlers.^[3] Following the period of Dutch rule in the 17th century, the name Thóng-léng-po͘ (統領埔; Hakka: Thúng-liâng-phû) was used after Koxinga's son and successor Zheng Jing stationed troops there under a tongling [zh] (統領),^[3] a military officer with rank roughly equal to a battalion commander; The suffix po͘ (埔) is often used for place names in Taiwan. A village gradually grew up in the area.^[3]

A portion of an 1870 map of Taiwan showing the Hengchun Peninsula with Checheng marked as "Chasiang"

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty assumed control of the lowlands of western Taiwan, ethnic Chinese settlers wanted protection from aboriginal attacks.^[3] A wooden palisade was built around the town giving rise to a new name, Chhâ-siâⁿ (柴城; Hakka: Tshài-sàng),^[3] using the character 柴 (chhâ) which is the Hokkien word for "wood". Thus Chhâ-siâⁿ has roughly the meaning of "stockade".

In 1788, the fifty-third year of the Qianlong Emperor's rule, Manchu general Fuk'anggan landed his army in the area to suppress the Lin Shuangwen rebellion.^[3] In commemoration, the town received yet another name Hok-an-chng (福安庄; also Hok-an-siâⁿ [福安城]),^[3] with 福 from Fuk'anggan's Chinese name and 安 for "pacified", plus 庄, meaning "hamlet".

The origin of the town's current name Checheng is disputed.^[3] Some such as Japanese anthropologist Inō Kanori believe that it arose as a mispronunciation of Chhâ-siâⁿ (柴城);^[3] the pronunciations of 柴 and 車 are similar in both Hokkien and Hakka, chhâ/chhia and tshài/tshâ respectively. Another theory is that as an aboriginal army approached the town, the inhabitants used dozens of oxcarts carrying charcoal to lined up as a defense.^[3]

Today, Hokkien-speaking inhabitants continue to pronounce the name of the town with the older Chhâ-siâⁿ, though the written form is almost inevitably 車城. English-language maps and sources have historically used spellings such as Chasiang that reflect this pronunciation.