Naruw'an

Taiwan tourism promotional TV commercial.

Naruw'an (common variant: Naruwan; Chinese transliteration: 娜路彎 or 那魯灣, Pinyin: Nàlùwān) in the Ami language is often reputed to be a greeting which can mean "Hello", "How are you?", "We are all in the same family" and "Welcome". The current meaning has only been recently affixed to the word as Naruw'an is a vocalization, primarily used in singing from various indigenous linguistic groups in Taiwan, with no literal meaning.

Tourism to Taiwan

The greeting was promoted in 2004 by the Chinese Taipei chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association as part of Taiwan Tourism Year. The Secretary General of the PATA Chinese Taipei chapter, Mr Eric Lin stated: "On behalf of all Taiwanese, we extend a warm Naruw'an! Welcome to Taiwan!" 1.

A nationwide elementary school drawing competition was held in Japan in 1995 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Japan Asia Airways. The winning design featuring people dancing in native Taiwanese costume was selected for use on a B747-100 model aircraft with the hanzi characters 那魯灣.

See also

  • Naruw'an Hotel
  • Taiwanese aborigines
  • Taiwan
  • Republic of China