Aboriginal names now easier to restore

In order to make it more convenient for aboriginal Taiwanese to restore their traditional name, the government will take applications from any Household Registration Office.

In the past, aboriginal people were forced to use a Chinese name on their national ID cards, passports and all other documents as part of the KMT campaign to assimilate the natives.

So far, 6,613 out of 470,000 aboriginies have restored traditional names.

Someone restoring a traditional name has three choices; to use Chinese characters to give a phonetic approximation of their name, to use romanization, or to have both a standard Chinese name in characters with an aboriginal name in romanization.