Siaolin Village

Siaolin Village (Chinese: 小林里; Hanyu Pinyin: Xiǎolín; Tongyong Pinyin: Siǎolín; Wade–Giles: Hsiao-Lin), also spelled Xiaolin Village, is a village in Jiasian District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is mostly agricultural and home to one of the largest communities of the Taivoan people.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot brought unprecedented rainfall to southern Taiwan, including Siaolin. A landslide dam upstream of Siaolin failed catastrophically, resulting in a devastating mudflow to completely cover the northern half of the village. 471 people lost their lives in the incident.

Due to the influx of Siraya people in early 18th century to Yujin Basin, Taivoan people started to migrate from Tainan to Kaohsiung between 1722 and 1744. Nearly 150 years later, some Taivoan people from Aliguan in Kaohsiung further migrated to a river terrace 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north of Aliguan for hunting. During the Japanese Occupation Period, in order to have Taivoan people counter the Mountain Indigenous people so as to control the camphor forest in Jiasian and Namasia, Japanese government collectively moved more Taivoan people to the river terrace, which later became Siaolin Village in 1904, said to be named after the family name of the local Japanese police officer Kobayashi (Hiragana: こばやし; Chinese: 小林; Tongyong Pinyin: Siǎolín).