Administrative Divisions of Taiwan: The Power Puzzle from 'Landdag' to 'Five Municipalities'

30-second overview: Taiwan's current "six special municipalities and sixteen counties/cities" is the result of multiple rounds of political surgery over four hundred years. In the 17th century the Dutch used "landdag" (local councils) to monitor tribal communities; the Zheng clan and Qing dynasty periods inaugurated the Han Chinese county-and-prefecture system; the Japanese colonial era laid the skeleton of modern administrative divisions through "five provinces and three prefectures" and a place-name refinement campaign. This experiment nearly produced a city named after a historical figure in 1945, and in 2010 the five-municipalities reform absorbed sixty percent of Taiwan's population into directly administered municipalities — leaving a contemporary challenge of resource imbalance.

Taiwan's administrative divisions did not begin with Han Chinese prefectures, but with the "Landdag" (local council) of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1635, after conquering the Mattau (Madou) tribal community by force, the Dutch held the first Landdag at Fort Zeelandia.¹ Administrative boundaries at the time were not precise borders but divided Taiwan into four "Landdag districts": Northern Road, Southern Road, Puyuma, and Tamsui. The Dutch governor would present each community's headman with a silver-headed staff symbolizing power, requiring them to assemble once a year and swear fealty.²

📝 Curator's note: The original intent of administrative divisions was often not to serve the people, but to allow rulers to "see" and "call roll" on the governed.

The Landing of the Han Chinese County System and the Passivity of Qing Rule

In 1661, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) expelled the Dutch, establishing Taiwan's first Han Chinese administrative center: Chengtian Prefecture, with Tianxing and Wanan as its two subordinate counties.³ During the reign of Koxinga's son Zheng Jing, with the assistance of Chen Yonghua, the two counties were elevated to provinces and an additional Pacification Office was established — laying the administrative skeleton of Taiwan's "south-to-north" development.

After the Qing dynasty incorporated Taiwan into its territory in 1684, it initially adopted a "passive governance" approach. Although Shi Lang advocated for retaining Taiwan, the Qing court established only "one prefecture and three counties" (Taiwan Prefecture, with Taiwan, Fengshan, and Zhuluo counties under it), subordinate to Fujian Province.⁴ This "small government" model was forced to expand as Han Chinese immigration surged and uprisings became frequent. In 1885, shaken by the Sino-French War, the Qing court finally recognized Taiwan's strategic importance and formally established it as a province. The first Provincial Governor Liu Mingchuan moved the administrative center from Tainan to Taipei — this "south-to-north reversal" fundamentally changed Taiwan's developmental priorities for the next hundred years.⁵

The Japanese Period: Scientific Governance and Place-Name Refinement

After Japan took control of Taiwan in 1895, the administrative divisions entered a period of dramatic change. Initially, to suppress resistance, a combined civil-military "three counties and one prefecture" system was adopted; under the direction of Civil Affairs Director Goto Shimpei, administrative divisions began shifting toward "scientific governance."⁶

In 1920 (the 9th year of Taisho), the first civilian Governor-General Den Kenjiro promoted the most far-reaching administrative reform in Taiwan's history: the Local Government Reform. This reform established the "five provinces and two prefectures" framework (later expanded to five provinces and three prefectures) and introduced the three-level "province-county-town/village" system.⁷ This reform was not just redrawing lines — it was also a large-scale "place-name refinement campaign":

• Takau was renamed Kaohsiung, because the Japanese pronunciation was similar and it carried the refined meaning of "high and grand."
• Xikkou was renamed Songshan (Pine Mountain), Shuifanjiao was renamed Xizhi (Seeping Tides), Agongdian was renamed Gangshan (Ridge Mountain).⁸

These place-name changes carried strong "Naichi Encho-shugi" (inner-territory extension ideology) — attempting through written language and Japanese-style pronunciation to incorporate Taiwan into the cultural territory of the Japanese empire.

1945: The Nearly Real "Shuangwen City" and "Province Three County"

If the gears of history had turned slightly differently, you might not be living in Keelung now but in "Province Three County," or perhaps not be a Chiayi resident but a "Shuangwen City" citizen.

In October 1944, the Nationalist government in Chongqing drafted the Outline Plan for the Takeover of Taiwan, laying out a set of administrative divisions with a strong "Party-State character."⁹ This plan envisioned dividing Taiwan into 30 counties and 12 provincial-level cities, with extensive use of historical figures for naming:

• Province Three County (Keelung): commemorating Governor Liu Mingchuan (courtesy name Province Three).
• Yanping County (around Tainan): commemorating Koxinga.
• Shuangwen City (Chiayi): commemorating rebel leader Lin Shuangwen.

Most ironic was "Shuangwen City." The name Chiayi was originally bestowed by the Qianlong Emperor to commend the local residents for resisting Lin Shuangwen's uprising — "praising their loyal righteousness in defending the city unto death" — yet the Nationalist government planned to name this city after the rebel himself.¹⁰ Ultimately, the plan was deemed too disconnected from reality and was shelved when Governor Chen Yi's administration took over in 1945, with the Japanese-era "province-prefecture" framework adapted into "county-city" designations.

2010: The Five-Municipalities Reform and Power Reorganization

"Three municipalities and fifteen counties" was a core campaign promise of Ma Ying-jeou when he ran for president in 2008.¹¹ The original concept was to consolidate into three metropolitan areas: Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. However, this puzzle piece quickly evolved under local political maneuvering. In 2009, Tainan County and City successfully lobbied for elevation based on their historical status as "the first capital of Taiwan," ultimately evolving into a "five municipalities" arrangement (Taoyuan joined in 2014 to become six municipalities).¹²

📝 Curator's note: When administrative restructuring becomes an "elevation competition," what we tend to get is not better governance but a larger resource divide.

Disappearing Borders and Unfulfilled Aspirations

"After the five-municipalities reform, the merger of Tainan County and City was like forcing a pair of siblings with completely different personalities to live in the same room." (From an interview with a Tainan grassroots civil servant)¹³

Post-reform directly administered municipalities gained more resources, but also brought new problems. The existing township and city autonomous authority was abolished and replaced by the dispatched agency of "district offices," leaving residents of remote areas discovering that although they were nominally "city residents," administrative efficiency and resource distribution were moving further from the core area.¹⁴ Taiwan's administrative division experiment has not yet ended — from the controversy over merging Greater Hsinchu to calls for integrating Taipei-New Taipei-Keelung, this puzzle game of power, resources, and identity continues to evolve on this island.

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