Name Index 🔍

Organizations index

Additional indices on other pages of this website

An alphabetical index of all members of the Legislative Yuan since 1993 can be found here.
For an alphabetical index of all members of the ROC National Assembly 1992–2005 please click here.
An alphabetical index of all ROC Grand Justices since 1948 is shown here.
An index of geographical names comprising a list of all cities, counties, districts, rural townships and urban townships of the ROC in alphabetical order including the respective 3-digit ROC postal code can be found here.
An index of smaller islands in the Taiwan area is accessible here.
For an overview of the maps on this website click here.

In addition, a selection of timelines and chronologies can be found here.

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◆ Remarks about Romanization and politics

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Users of this database will notice sooner or later that although names of institutions and other terms are introduced with Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音 and Chinese characters, the majority of Taiwan's personal and geographical names is not romanized according to that system. While the proper Romanization of Chinese sounds is—and should be—primarily a linguistic issue, in Taiwan it is a highly politicized topic.

Hanyu Pinyin was developed in the PRC in 1958 and was introduced by the PRC government as the official Romanization for Mandarin Chinese in 1979. In the same year it was also adopted as the standard Romanization for modern Chinese by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Today Hanyu Pinyin is the most popular Romanization system for Mandarin in the world and has become the international standard since it is also used by the UN. A separate PDF file (29 pages, A4) introducing Hanyu Pinyin with detailed explanations can be found here.

At the time Hanyu Pinyin became common globally the relations between Taiwan/the ROC and the PRC were still decidedly hostile. Until the 1990s the use of Hanyu Pinyin in Taiwan was ruled out in general by the relevant authorities. It has remained a controversial issue even to this day, and no broad consensus was reached about which Romanization system should be used. Some local governments in Taiwan have adopted Hanyu Pinyin, others have not, resulting in several different systems co-existing, including Wade Giles and Tongyong, vexing foreign visitors and residents.

The main argument against using Hanyu Pinyin for Taiwanese geographical and personal names is that doing so might lead persons abroad who are not familiar with the political situation between Taiwan/the ROC and China/the PRC into believing that Taiwanese names romanized in Hanyu Pinyin were from a place under the jurisdiction of the PRC. Opting for an alternative Romanization system is consequently a method to set Taiwan apart from China and avoid confusion between the two sides.

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◆ Personal names index

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Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation guide to names with non-standard spelling

The list below shows the names of ROC politicians, leaders and other personalities mentioned in this website (except members of the ROC Legislative Yuan, the National Assembly and the Council of Grand Justices) in alphabetical order, their Chinese characters, and the pronunciation of the name in Hanyu Pinyin in square brackets and italics. In case of names where the official English spelling and the pronunciation in Hanyu Pinyin are identical, nothing is added behind the Chinese characters.

For more information about Hanyu Pinyin click here.

In order to make getting to the name you’re looking for easier, click on the initial letter of the family name as shown in the table directly below.

A, B	C	D, F, G	H	I, J
K	L	M, N, O	P, R	S
T	U, V	W	Y	Z

——— A, B ———

Ai Ai 艾靉
An Kui 安奎
Bi Hsueh-wen 畢學文 [Bi Xuewen]

Name Index 🔍

Additional indices on other pages of this website

A curious detail

Names with variations of Chinese characters

Aborigines with additional Chinese names