In Taiwan, the 里 is a kind of subdivision of a city, subordinate to 區.
I’ve heard it translated as “borough”, usually in English announcements on buses. But is that an official designation?
If I’m translating something official for, say, a government website, what is the officially recognized English translation of 里? And its elected leader, the 里長?
Thanks
When I hear borough, I think of New York City, and the boroughs there are much larger than the 里 here. How about neighborhood? It’s easily understood, and every 里 has a name, so it’ll fit nicely in front of neighborhood. And the 里長 would be the neighborhood chief.
“Neighborhood” is another designation altogether: 鄰
Looking online I’ve found “Li”, “Rural Village” and “Borough”, but nothing authoritative.
That it’s translated that way on bus stops suggests it’s official.
Googling “taipei city boroughs” returns a number of references, among one
english.taipei.gov.tw/ct.asp?xIt … &mp=100002
This however suggests “village” though I didn’t check extensively:
I am no expert, but I think it would differ in meaning depending on what it goes with, but in my mind it refers to an “administrative unit or area” which could then mean borough or village or whichever it refers to. Not sure there is a 100% accurate word for word translation.
Hmmm… I think a borough can be large or small. The key characteristic seems to be powers of self government. A li doesn’t have these. I think neighborhood is probably the best translation. Perhaps a Lizhang is a ‘neighborhood ombudsman’?
From the consensus of the sources I have researched and people I have questioned, a 里 is the urban equivalent of a 村, just like a 鎮 is the urban equivalent of a 鄉. So 里 is “village”, and 里長 is “village chief”.
Neighborhood (鄰) is at a different hierarchical level from Li.
Chris is correct.
The following are comparable levels of rural vs. urban divisions, and their most common translations in English:
Level 1
縣 = （省轄）市 / County = (Provincial) City
–for example, Yunlin County / Keelung City–
Level 2
鄉鎮市 = 區 / (Rural) Township, (Urban)Township, (County-Controlled) City = District
–for example, Yuanlin Township / Zhongzheng District–
Level 3
村 = 里 / Village = Borough
–for example, Jinxing Village / He’an Borough–
Level 4
鄰 = 鄰 Neighborhood = Neighborhood
–for example, Neighborhood No. 37–
Things get complicated when you get to Executive Yuan-controlled municipalities (直轄市), which technically rank above both counties and provincial cities. Municipalities are supposed to be the same level as a province (省), meaning Taipei’s mayor is in theory the same level as the mayor of Beijing, who is the same level as the governor of Hunan Province. In practice, Taiwan Province stopped doing anything useful decades ago, so now a direct-controlled municipality is basically just a larger version of a provincial city that gets a lot more cash to spend each year.
In the ROC, there are five special municipalities: Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. Taoyuan County will be upgraded to Taoyuan City (a new municipality) at the end of this year, and the current Taoyuan City will become Taoyuan District. These five (six) municipalities are not part of Taiwan Province, so the governor of Taiwan (Lin Junq-tzer, if anyone’s keeping count) has absolutely no input into anything about them.
As a result, Taiwan Province of the Republic of China is actually home to only about 40% of the country’s population. If someone from Taipei says “I’m from Taiwan,” that sentence is, in the strictest reading, only correct in that the island he or she comes from is called Taiwan, but since he or she is from the Republic of China’s direct-controlled municipality of Taipei, it is technically wrong to say that he or she comes from a political entity called Taiwan. Which just goes to show how absurd the situation around Taiwan’s status really is.
The only provincial cities in Taiwan are Keelung, Hsinchu City, and Chiayi City. Any city not listed above, like Taitung City or Douliu or Magong, is a “county-controlled city” (縣轄市), meaning the mayor is a very small-time politician indeed.
What many people don’t realize is that the ROC actually has a second province other than Taiwan. The islands administered under Kinmen County and Lienchiang County (commonly called Matsu) are part of the Republic of China’s Fujian Province, which really does exist, even if it only encompasses a few minor islands. The governor is Schive Chi (Schive is, bizarrely enough, his family name, 薛).
In answer to the OP’s real question: 里 should be borough, though translating it as “li” is probably not terrible.
Class dismissed.
Hokongwei is correct in his analysis of the hierarchy, but in the latest Executive Yuan (EY) Romanization guidelines, the urban-rural distinction has been abandoned in the English nomenclature. So the official translations according to the EY are now:
“Village” for both “村” and “里”
and
“Township” for both “鄉” and “鎮”
You can find the guidelines here:
Hmmm…does it really make sense in English to call an urban neighborhood a ‘village’? I suppose that if Chris is translating for an official government publication, it would be best to follow the government’s guidelines for the sake of compliance and consistency. Perhaps something like the Japanese system of romanizing the names of these administrative subdivisions would cause less confusion.
I totally support this, but you know Taiwan is just shy about using any Romanizations of Chinese words. They will always prefer nonsensical terms like Rural Township to Xiang, bizarre self-deprecating terms like “Taiwanese hamburger” instead of kuah-pau.
or New Row Mian… 