What’s Taiwan catty, market catty, public catty?

There are differences among the Taiwan catty, market catty and pubic catty, all used as common measurements of weight.

Let’s take the Taiwan catty first. It’s the most popularly used measurement of weight in Taiwan, albeit it’s not originated in Taiwan.

It was made a standard measurement of weight in China, with Taiwan as a province, in 1886.

Catty, of course, is a translation. The Chinese word for it is “jin” in Mandarin and “kun” in Hoklo.

The word in English, on the other hand, came from “kati” in Malay. As used in Southeast Asia, one catty is equivalent to one and a half pounds or 680 grams. But the Qing or Manchu Chinese catty equals 596.8 grams. For convenience’s sake, it is equivalent to 600 grams. That catty was in use in Taiwan while the island was under Japanese rule for 50 years from 1895 to 1945. The Japanese introduced their own measurements of “kwan” and “monme” as well as the metric system of grams and kilograms in the meantime. In 1911, the Great Qing Empire was toppled in the Chinese Revolution. The Kuomintang government made the market catty or shi jin take over the Qing catty in 1927.

One market catty is equivalent to 500 grams. Moreover, the pubic catty or gong jin in Mandarin or kong kun in Hoklo was introduced. It’s one kilogram. Taiwan was under Japanese occupation when that change took place in China. The market catty did not come to the island. When Taiwan was restored to the Republic of China in 1945, the market catty was not made the standard measurement of weight in the newly acquired island province.

The people of Taiwan have continued to use the Qing catty. Because it’s in use only in Taiwan, it has come to be known as Taiwan catty.

But the kilogram system, introduced by the Japanese, has been in use along with the Taiwan catty over the past century. There are 1,000 grams to a kilogram, which is equivalent to 2.2 pounds.

One kilogram = 1,000 grams = 2.2 pounds

One Taiwan catty = 16 Taiwan ounces = 600 grams

One market catty = 13.33 Taiwan ounces = 500 grams

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