Huwei, Yunlin

23.719983°N 120.435364°E / 23.719983; 120.435364

Huwei Township 虎尾鎮 Kobi
Urban township
Street view in Huwei
Huwei Township in Yunlin County
Location	Yunlin County, Taiwan
Area
• Total	69 km2 (27 sq mi)
Population  (February 2023)
• Total	70,300
• Density	1,000/km2 (2,600/sq mi)

Downtown Huwei

Huwei Township Office

Huwei Township (Chinese: 虎尾鎮; pinyin: Hǔwěi Zhèn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hó͘-bóe-tìn or Hó͘-bé-tìn) is an urban township in Yunlin County, Taiwan. It has a population of about 70,300.

Name

In the 17th century, during the Dutch era, Favorolang was one of the largest and most powerful aboriginal villages in Taiwan.^[1] The name has also been spelled Favorlang, Favorlangh, and Vovorollang.^[2] Its location was north of Tirosen (modern-day Chiayi), and the Favorlang river had been called by the Chinese How-boe-khe (Chinese: 吼尾溪) during the reign of the Qing Yongzheng Emperor (ca. 1722 – 1735). The Chinese name for the area (Chinese: 大崙腳庄) was later changed to Go-keng-chhu (Chinese: 五間厝庄; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gō͘ -keng-chhù-chng).^[3][4]

The name Favorlang is said to have derived from the ethnonym Babuza,^[5] a tribe of the Taiwanese Plains Aborigines.

Map of Huwei (labeled as Kobi) and surrounding area (1944)

In 1920, during Taiwan's Japanese era, the town was administered as Kobi Town (Japanese: 虎尾庄), under Kobi District (虎尾郡), Tainan Prefecture. During this era, the town earned the nickname of "Sugar Capital" (糖都).

Government

Administrative divisions

Villages in Huwei Township

There are 29 villages:^[6]

• Anqing
• Anxi
• Beixi
• Dexing
• Dingxi
• Dongren
• Dongtun
• Fangcao
• Gong'an
• Huilai
• Jianguo
• Juetou
• Kendi
• Lenei
• Lianshi
• Liren
• Pinghe
• Sanhe
• Xi'an
• Xiaxi
• Xingnan
• Xingzhong
• Xinji
• Xinxing
• Xitun
• Yanping
• Yingchuan
• Zhongshan
• Zhongxi

Local government

• Taiwan Yunlin District Court^[7]

Economy

• Huwei Sugar Factory

Education

• National Formosa University

Tourist attractions

Huwei Sugar Factory Steel Bridge

• Huwei Sugar Factory Iron Bridge
• SL Towel Industrial Tourism and Explore Factory
• Tongxin Park
• Yunlin Hand Puppet Museum
• Yunlin Story House

Transportation

THSR Yunlin Station

The township houses the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) Yunlin Station.

Famous residents

• Gilbertus Happart

Sister city relations

• Ōma, Aomori Prefecture, Japan^[8]

Notable natives

• Chen Po-chih, Minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (2000–2002)
• Frankie Huang, actor and television host

References

1. Andrade, Tonio (2005). "Chapter 7: The Challenges of a Chinese Frontier". How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. Columbia University Press.
2. Campbell, William (1903). "Explanatory Notes". Formosa under the Dutch: described from contemporary records, with explanatory notes and a bibliography of the island. London: Kegan Paul. p. 542. OCLC 644323041.
3. 楊彥騏 (2003). 虎尾的大代誌 (in Chinese). Yunlin: 雲林縣政府文化局. ISBN 9789570138382.
4. "Entry #40044". 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan]. (in Chinese and Hokkien). Ministry of Education, R.O.C. 2011.
5. Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2003). "Introduction: Notes on Favorlang, an Extinct Formosan language". In Ogawa, Naoyoshi (ed.). English-Favorlang vocabulary. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa. pp. 1–13. ISBN 4872978536.
6. "Welcome To Huwei". Huwei Township Office. 2010. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
7. "Taiwan YunLin District Court". uld.judicial.gov.tw. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
8. "International Exchange". List of Affiliation Partners within Prefectures. Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.

External links

• Huwei Township Office (in English)