| Official Name: | Checheng Township 車城鄉 |
| Other Name: | Chai-cheng |
| Subdivision Type: | Location |
| Area Total Km2: | 50 |
| Population As Of: | February 2024 |
| Population Total: | 8002 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Checheng Township | |
| T: | 車城鄉 |
| P: | Chēchéng Xiāng |
| W: | Ch'e1-ch'eng2 Hsiang1 |
| Poj: | Chha-siâⁿ-hiong/Chhia-siâⁿ-hiong |
| Phfs: | Tshâ-sàng-hiông |
| Hide: | no |
Checheng Township[1] is a rural township in Pingtung County, Taiwan.[2]
The name of the town. Checheng combines the Chinese character for "cart", today used to refer to cars and other motorized transport, and which is used in words for walled fortresses and cities, but which in the Taiwanese historical context refers to a town with an earthen security berm.
With the arrival of ethnic Chinese on Taiwan, the native Paiwan name of Kabeyawan was transliterated as Ku-piah-oan (Chinese: 龜壁灣) in the Taiwanese Hokkien language of these new settlers.[3]
After the Manchu Qing Dynasty assumed control of the lowlands of western Taiwan, ethnic Chinese settlers wanted protection from aboriginal attacks. A wooden palisade was built around the town giving rise to a new name, Chhâ-siâⁿ (Chinese: 柴城; Hakka: Tshài-sàng), using the character Chinese: 柴 (chhâ) which is the Hokkien word for "wood". Thus Chhâ-siâⁿ has roughly the meaning of "stockade".
In 1788, the fifty-third year of the Qianlong Emperor's rule, Manchu general Fuk'anggan landed his army in the area to suppress the Lin Shuangwen rebellion. In commemoration, the town received yet another name Hok-an-chng (Chinese: 福安庄; also Hok-an-siâⁿ [{{lang|zh|福安城}}]), with Chinese: 福 from Fuk'anggan's Chinese name and Chinese: [[wikt:安#Chinese|安]] for "pacified", plus Chinese: [[wikt:庄#Chinese|庄]], meaning "hamlet".
The origin of the town's current name Checheng is disputed. Some such as Japanese anthropologist Inō Kanori believe that it arose as a mispronunciation of Chhâ-siâⁿ (Chinese: 柴城); the pronunciations of Chinese: 柴 and Chinese: 車 are similar in both Hokkien and Hakka, chhâ/chhia and tshài/tshâ respectively. Another theory is that as an aboriginal army approached the town, the inhabitants used dozens of oxcarts carrying charcoal to lined up as a defense.
Today, Hokkien-speaking inhabitants continue to pronounce the name of the town with the older Chhâ-siâⁿ, though the written form is almost inevitably Chinese: 車城. English-language maps and sources have historically used spellings such as Chasiang that reflect this pronunciation.
Area:
Population: 8,002 (February 2024)
The township comprises 11 villages: Baoli, Fuan, Fuxing, Haikou, Houwan, Puqi, Sheliao, Tianzhong, Tongpu, Wenquan and Xinjie.
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