---
name: "Encode::TW"
section: "3p"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Encode::TW"
---

# Encode::TW(3p)

Taiwan-based Chinese Encodings

## NAME

Encode::TW - Taiwan-based Chinese Encodings

## SYNOPSIS

```
    use Encode qw/encode decode/;
    $big5 = encode("big5", $utf8); # loads Encode::TW implicitly
    $utf8 = decode("big5", $big5); # ditto
```

## DESCRIPTION

This module implements tradition Chinese charset encodings as used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Encodings supported are as follows.

```
  Canonical   Alias             Description
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  big5-eten   /\bbig-?5$/i      Big5 encoding (with ETen extensions)
          /\bbig5-?et(en)?$/i
          /\btca-?big5$/i
  big5-hkscs  /\bbig5-?hk(scs)?$/i
              /\bhk(scs)?-?big5$/i
                                Big5 + Cantonese characters in Hong Kong
  MacChineseTrad                Big5 + Apple Vendor Mappings
  cp950                         Code Page 950
                                = Big5 + Microsoft vendor mappings
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
```

To find out how to use this module in detail, see Encode.

## NOTES

Due to size concerns, `"EUC-TW"` (Extended Unix Character), `"CCCII"` (Chinese Character Code for Information Interchange), `"BIG5PLUS"` (CMEX's Big5+) and `"BIG5EXT"` (CMEX's Big5e) are distributed separately on CPAN, under the name Encode::HanExtra. That module also contains extra China-based encodings.

## BUGS

Since the original `"big5"` encoding (1984) is not supported anywhere (glibc and DOS-based systems uses `"big5"` to mean `"big5-eten"`; Microsoft uses `"big5"` to mean `"cp950"`), a conscious decision was made to alias `"big5"` to `"big5-eten"`, which is the de facto superset of the original big5.

The `"CNS11643"` encoding files are not complete. For common `"CNS11643"` manipulation, please use `"EUC-TW"` in Encode::HanExtra, which contains planes 1-7.

The ASCII region (0x00-0x7f) is preserved for all encodings, even though this conflicts with mappings by the Unicode Consortium.

## SEE ALSO

Encode