HOKLO – 福佬人

Location of the Island of Taiwan in East Asia
( ontheworldmap.com )

Island of Taiwan & Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu Islands.
Also shown are:
Green Island (Lu Dao) & Orchid Island (Lan Yu).
( cia.gov )

Administrative Divisions of Taiwan
( nouahsark.com )

Traditional geographical distribution of Highland Peoples.
Alternate spellings or names:
Taroko (Truku, Seediq); Yami (Tao)
( wikipedia . org )

Satellite image of Taiwan showing the central mountains. Compare this image with the map (above) to appreciate the geographic distribution of the Highland Peoples.
( geology . com )

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THE HOKLO PEOPLE – 福佬人

  • The Hokklo (Hoklo / Holo / Minnan) people of Taiwan are the largest ethnic group on the island, forming the cultural and historical backbone of much of Taiwanese society today.
  • Who are the Hokklo?
    Also called: Hoklo, Holo, Minnan people
    Primary language: Taiwanese Hokkien (a Southern Min language)
    Population: Roughly 65–70% of Taiwan’s population
    Ancestral origins: Mainly from Fujian Province in southeastern China, especially Quanzhou and Zhangzhou
  • Historical Background
    Large-scale Hokklo migration to Taiwan began in the 17th century, particularly during:
    The Dutch colonial period (1624–1662)
    The era of Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga)
    The Qing Dynasty
    Most migrants were farmers, fishermen, and traders seeking land and opportunity. Over time, they became deeply rooted in Taiwan, developing a distinct Taiwanese identity separate from mainland China.
  • Language
    Taiwanese Hokkien is one of Taiwan’s most widely spoken languages.
    It differs noticeably from modern Fujian Hokkien due to centuries of local development and influence from Indigenous languages, Japanese, and Mandarin.
    Today, it is used widely in:
    Daily conversation
    Traditional opera
    Folk religion
    Popular music and media
  • Language rights advocates and groups supporting “Taiwanization” have called on the government to change its linguistic designation for Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) from Minnanyu (閩南語, Southern Min) to Taiyu (台語).
  • The word Minnan has overtones of racial discrimination, and in the past, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian government used “unlawful” means when designating it the “official name” for Taiyu, Taiwanese Pen Tai-bun Pit-hoe, the Takao Promote Tai-gi-bun Association and other advocacy groups said in a statement.
  • When Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), who was born in Tainan, spoke in Hoklo during a recent visit to Taiwan, he referred to the language as Taiyu, the statement said.
  • The government’s term for Hoklo is discriminatory, language groups say
    By Tsai Wen-chu and Jason Pan / Staff reporters

     
     
    Language rights advocates and groups supporting “Taiwanization” have called on the government to change its linguistic designation for Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) from Minnanyu (閩南語, Southern Min) to Taiyu (台語).
    The word Minnan has overtones of racial discrimination, and in the past, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian government used “unlawful” means when designating it the “official name” for Taiyu, Taiwanese Pen Tai-bun Pit-hoe, the Takao Promote Tai-gi-bun Association and other advocacy groups said in a statement.
    When Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), who was born in Tainan, spoke in Hoklo during a recent visit to Taiwan, he referred to the language as Taiyu, the statement said.
  • The groups urged the Ministry of Education “to respect the wishes of Taiwanese, to change the term in school textbooks … and to take action through an official notification from the ministry” saying that the language should be referred to as Taiyu, not Minnan.
  • Other organizations involved in the statement included the Taiwanese Romanization Association, the Taiwan-Vietnam Culture Association, Toa-bak-chiu Liam-koa-thoan, National Cheng Kung University’s Department of Taiwanese Literature and the Hoat-Ki Tai-gi Ki-kim-hoe Taiwanese Foundation.
  • Protesters carry a snake figure outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei on July 29, 2009, in a protest against the use of the term Minnan instead of Taiyu to describe the Hoklo language.
    Photo: CNA
    “Therefore we urge the Ministry of Education to follow the Executive Yuan’s resolution to prioritize the term Taiyu instead of Minnan,” it said
    No article in the Constitution, nor any legal provision requires the use of Minnan when referring to Hoklo, the statement added.
    Furthermore, the Min (閩) symbol is composed of the radical for door, and the component for insects (虫) or beast, which in ancient times referred to snakes, it said.
    “The use of Minnan by northern Chinese was intended as racial discrimination when referring to the people of the Fujian or Minnan region,” the statement said, adding that some textbooks say the term meant “snake people” or “persons crawling on the ground.”
    “Therefore Minnan when applied … to speakers of the language, is like Han Chinese in the past referring to Taiwan’s indigenous people as fan [番, ‘uncivilized, or barbarians’] who spoke fan languages,” the statement said.
    The government’s continued use of the term Minnan violates people’s right to language equality and contravenes the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights; the UN’s covenants on protecting civil and political rights, and social and cultural rights; and the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法), which went in to effect in 2019, it said.
  • Culture and Society
    Traditional Values
    Strong emphasis on family, ancestry, and community
    Clan associations and ancestral halls are common
    Lineage-based village organization historically shaped rural life
    Folk Religion
    Hokklo religious life blends:
    Daoism
    Buddhism
    Chinese folk beliefs
    Commonly worshiped deities include:
    Mazu (Goddess of the Sea)
    Guanyin
    Wang Ye (Plague Deities)
    Local earth gods (Tudigong)
    Temple festivals—such as the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage—are central to Hokklo cultural life.
  • Relationship with Indigenous Peoples
    Early Hokklo settlers interacted extensively with Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples through:
    Trade
    Intermarriage
    Land agreements (and sometimes conflict)
    As a result, many modern Hokklo families have partial Indigenous ancestry, and elements of Indigenous culture influenced early Taiwanese society.
  • Role in Modern Taiwanese Identity
    The Hokklo played a major role in shaping:
    Taiwan’s local customs
    Cuisine (oyster omelets, rice dishes, seafood)
    Political movements, including Taiwanese localization and democratization
    The development of a distinct Taiwanese national consciousness
    While Mandarin is now the official language, Taiwanese Hokkien remains a key symbol of local identity, especially in southern Taiwan—such as Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung County, an area you’ve shown interest in before.

  • EASY SEARCH FOR MORE LINKS ! . . . . .

  • scholar.google.com – The Hoklo People – 福佬人 @ Google Scholar
  • youtube.com – The Hoklo People – 福佬人 @ You Tube . com
  • images.google.com – The Hoklo People – 福佬人 @ Google Images

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LATEST PAGE UPDATE: January 01 , 2026 .
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