Mingjian Township is a rural township in western

Nantou County Nantou is the second largest County (Taiwan), county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya people, Hoanya Taiwanese aborigines, Taiwanese ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. It is the second smallest township in the county, after Jiji Township.

Name and etymology

The name Mingjian originates from a Japanese transliteration of the original

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien ( , ), or simply Taiwanese, also known as Taigi ( zh, c=臺語, tl=Tâi-gí), Taiwanese Southern Min ( zh, c=臺灣閩南語, tl=Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí), Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively ...

name, Làm-á (), with literal meaning "a very wet place". In 1920, during Japanese rule, the name was changed to which closely matched the Taiwanese pronunciation but with different ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' (

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

) for the name. This written form was retained after the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

takeover of Taiwan in 1945; the characters are pronounced ''Bêng-kan'' and ''Míngjiān'' in Taiwanese and

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

, respectively.

History

Mingjian was a hunting ground for the

Taiwanese aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * of or related to Taiwan **Culture of Taiwan **Geography of Taiwan ** Taiwanese cuisine *Languages of Taiwan ** Formosan languages ** Taiwanese Hokkien, also known as the Taiwanese language * Taiwanese people, residents of ...

. In 2008, the 100th congregation of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

in Taiwan was organized in Mingjian. A leaning unused electrical pylon damaged in the

1999 Jiji earthquake The Chi-Chi earthquake (later also known as the Jiji earthquake, 921 Earthquake, or the great earthquake of September 21), was a 7.3 Richter magnitude scale, ML or 7.7 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake which occurred in Jiji, Nanto ...

, has been turned into an earthquake memorial.Tilting Electric Tower in Mingjian.
2 May 2008.

Administrative divisions

Mingjian includes the villages of Buxia (), Chishui (), Dakeng (), Dazhuang (), Donghu (), Kanjiao (), Nanya (), Puzhong (), Renhe (), Sanlun (), Songbo (), Songshan (), Tanliao (), Tianzi (), Wandan (), Xincuo () Xinguang (), Xinjie (), Xinmin (), Zhongshan (), Zhongzheng (), Zhuoshui (), Zhuwei ().

Transportation

TRA Tra or TRA may refer to: Biology * TRA (gene), in humans encodes the protein T-cell receptor alpha locus * Tra (gene), in ''Drosophila melanogaster'' encodes the protein female-specific protein transformer * Tra gene, a transfer gene * Triple rel ...

Zhuoshui Station

Notable natives

* Chen Cheng-sheng, member of

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan () is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for four-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a ...

(1999-2002)

References

{{Townships in Taiwan Townships in Nantou County