Liuqiu, also known by several other names, is a coral island in the Taiwan Strait about southwest of the main island of Taiwan. It has an area of and approximately 13,000 residents, the vast majority of whom share only 10 surnames. It is administered as a township of Pingtung County in Taiwan Province, Republic of China. the township chief is Chen Lung-chin. Names Liúqiú is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese name . Other romanizations include Liuchiu, Liu-chiu, and Liu-ch'iu based on the Wade-Giles system for Mandarin and Ryūkyū from its Japanese pronunciation. The original Liuqiu appears in the Book of Sui and other medieval Chinese records as an island kingdom somewhere in the East China Sea. It was written by different authors with different homophonous characters and appears to have transcribed a native name. That kingdom has been variously identified with states on Taiwan Island, Okinawa, and the Penghu Islands. The name Liuqiu Islet (, yǔ) was first used during the Ming Dynasty. Since "Ryūkyū" is also the name of the nearby Ryukyu archipelago including Okinawa and a historical kingdom there, the island has also been nicknamed (小琉球, Pinyin Xiǎo Liúqiú) as opposed to "Big Liuqiu" (大琉球) for the Ryukyu Islands or Taiwan - since the early 20th century. Transcriptions of the nickname include Xiao Liuqiu, Siaoliouciou, and Sio Liu-khiu. The island was previously known in English and other European languages as Lambay, Lamay, or Lamey Island. It is thought to be a transcription of a name from one of the Taiwanese aboriginal languages. Other indigenous names were Samaji and Tugin. It was occasionally also known as , a calque of its old Dutch name . The city's tourism department ascribes the name to Vase Rock's supposed resemblance to a lion, but it actually honors the slaughtered crew of the . History The Siraya, the Taiwanese indigenous peoples who also lived in nearby Pingtung County on Taiwan Island, are thought to have been the island's original inhabitants. In 1622, the Dutch ship or (Dutch for "Golden Lion") hit the island's coral reefs. Its entire crew was massacred by the island's natives. In 1631, the Dutch yacht wrecked on the same reefs and its fifty-odd survivors battled for two days before also being slaughtered to a man. Hendrik Brouwer, the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, personally ordered his lieutenant on Taiwan Hans Putmans to "punish