Lanyu

See also: lànyú and Lányǔ

English

Alternative forms

• Lan-yü (also from Wade–Giles)

Etymology

From Mandarin 蘭嶼 (Lányǔ) Wade–Giles romanization: Lan²-yü³.

Proper noun

Lanyu

1. A rural township of Taitung County, Taiwan, primarily made up of Orchid Island (Lanyu)
   • 2020 May 8, C. Chuang, “Lanyu Township to Begin Accepting Grant Applications After Delay [未受理紓困方案 蘭嶼民眾質疑是二等公民]”, in Public Television Service‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 September 2023‎^[2]:

     Lanyu Township is the only place in Taitung County that hasn't started receiving applications of the financial relief subsidy program, leading to complaints from residents about being second-class citizens. […]
     At present, the only township in the county that hasn't begun processing applications is Lanyu Township, much to the dismay of residents.

2. Synonym of Orchid Island
   • 1953 April, Hui-Lin Li, “Floristic Interchanges Between Formosa and the Philippines”, in Pacific Science‎^[3], volume VII, page 182:

     It was discovered that many species, especially those considered endemic to southern Formosa or Lanyu (Botel Tobago), are synonymous with certain generally widespread species of the Philippine Islands, especially of Luzon and the northern small islands.

   • 1979 November, Irene Corbally Kuhn, “Gourmet Holidays Taiwan”, in Gourmet‎^[4], volume XXXIX, number 11, page 164:

     Oluanpi's lighthouse looks toward Lanyu, or Orchid Island, a tiny, rocky protuberance sixty-eight miles to the southeast and important because it is the home of the Yami, the smallest and most primitive tribe of aborigines in Taiwan. Isolated by geography, the Yami have been able to preserve their distinctive traditions and culture, living, farming, and fishing as their ancestors did countless hundreds of years ago from small, double-prowed boats covered with intricate carving and brilliant decoration. Adventurous tourists can now fly to Lanyu from Taitung.

   • 1982 October 17, “Telephones reach all villages ROC forges ahead in communications”, in Free China Weekly‎^[5], volume XXIII, number 41, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:

     Pointing to the great pains the government has taken to assure that every community in Taiwan has at least one telephone, Lien said that in one case, the Taiwan Telecommunications Administration spent NT$13 million (US$325,000) to have a telephone booth installed in a remote village on Lanyu (Orchid Island) off the coast of eastern Taiwan.

   • 2014, Robert Kelly, Chung Wah Chow, Taiwan‎^[6], 9th edition, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 308:

     A volcanic island covered with a carpet of tropical rainforest, Lanyu lies about 65km southeast of the city of Taitung, making it the southernmost outpost of Taiwan.
     Lanyu's status as a far-flung outpost isn't merely geographical, but cultural as well, as the island is by far the least Chinese part of Taiwan.

   • 2023 January 5, Amy Qin, Amy Chang Chien, “The Nuclear Dump That Created a Generation of Indigenous Activists”, in The New York Times‎^[7], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-05‎^[8]:

     The waste site in Lanyu, also known as Orchid Island, or Ponso no Tao, has been among the highest-profile causes taken up by Indigenous Taiwanese, who were the main inhabitants of these islands until four centuries ago, when colonial settlers began arriving from mainland China, Europe and, later, imperial Japan.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Lanyu.

Synonyms

• Orchid Island
• Botel Tobago

Translations

island

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蘭嶼／兰屿 (zh) (Lányǔ)

• Japanese: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• Lanyu, Orchid Island at Google Ngram Viewer
• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Lan Yü Island”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[9], volume 2, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1677, column 3

Anagrams

• nyula, unlay, yulan