Politics, China dominate in Taiwan name game

TAIPEI, Sep 20: Frequent travellers to Taiwan may find themselves scratching their heads next time they fly to the island's main airport in Taipei.

With barely a debate or public notice, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) quietly changed the airport's name this month to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, eliminating its previous moniker of Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.

The move, puzzling to many outsiders, is just the latest volley in an ongoing verbal war in Taiwan, where names can be loaded words for rival political parties that see their homeland as either part of China or as an independent country.

''This is an identity question,'' said Emile Sheng, a professor of political science at Taiwan's Soochow University.

''We have a Chinese identity versus a Taiwan identity. That's the main cleavage of Taiwanese politics.'' The airport change is a poignant example in the name game, representing at once the addition of ''Taiwan'' and the elimination of Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist general who once ruled all China and then Taiwan after losing the mainland to the Communists and fleeing to the island in 1949.

China has considered the island a breakaway province ever since.

''In recent years, there has been an ongoing evolution,'' Premier Su Tseng-chang said in a document detailing the airport's name change. ''We hope that this official name will restore the name that should have been.'' The opposition Nationalists predictably called the change a colossal waste of money, saying it would cost the government T0 million ( million) and private companies billion for changes in signage and the like.

''Is it worth that?'' said Nationalist party spokesman Tsai Chin-long. ''We have so many important things, such as corruption and foreign affairs. What are we doing with name changes?''

Examples of the name game tussle persist nearly everywhere in Taiwan life, most notably in the island's official name, the Republic of China. Licence plates on many cars also often list their jurisdiction as Taiwan province, reflecting the view of Chiang's Nationalist Party that Taiwan is just one of many provinces governed by the Republic of China.

The sensitive subject also spills across the Taiwan Strait, with the island often known as Chinese Taipei at international gatherings such as the Olympics due to Beijing's insistence that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of that.

CORPORATE CONFUSION

Adding to the confusion are disputes over corporate names such as China Airlines, the island's biggest carrier, not to be confused with the mainland flag carrier, Air China.

The island's top telecoms carrier, Chunghwa Telecom, also translates literally to ''China Telecom''.

The pro-Taiwan camp has made various attempts in recent years to change some of the names to evoke Taiwan rather than China, though few have come to fruition.

''There's been a feeling that some of these names should be changed,'' said Bruce Jacobs, a professor of Asian Languages at Australia's Monash University. ''People have wanted this to happen with the big ones like China Airlines.'' The tug-of-war over names also goes down to street level, with some suggesting that thoroughfares bearing names of mainland cities and provinces be changed to give a more local flavour.

Soochow University's Cheng said he expects many company names to eventually be changed to better reflect their business scope. But many of the smaller details, such as street names, may be left alone, he added.

''There's a lot of social cost in this,'' he said. ''If you have to change these names, it's going to cause inconvenience in people's lives,'' he said.

REUTERS