Taiwan: time zone history, and your birth hour
The clocks in Taiwan have changed 40 times since 1900. Today they run on UTC+8; the last change was on 30 Sep 1979. A calculator that uses today’s offset for every birth is out by some minutes for anyone born in any of the different eras below.
Since 1925, the widest gap is the standard time from 1937: 60 minutes, enough to move about 50% of births into a different two-hour period.
Every era
| From – to | Clock | Versus today · births in another hour |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan 1900 – 1 Oct 1937 | UTC+8 standard time | same |
| 1 Oct 1937 – 21 Sep 1945 | UTC+9 standard time | +60 min about 50% |
| 21 Sep 1945 – 15 May 1946 | UTC+8 standard time | same |
1946–1979, 19 stretcheseach stretch
| UTC+9 in summer, UTC+8 the rest of the year | up to 60 min about 50% |
| 30 Sep 1979 – today | UTC+8 standard time | same |
The second figure in each row is the births moved into another two-hour period: about m/120 of them when the clock is m minutes out. For Kuala Lumpur, 30 minutes out from 1946 to 1981, the measured share is 26.0% of 4,000 sampled births.
Born in summer time?
In each of these, the clocks ran ahead of standard time. A birth inside one happened that much earlier by the sun than the clock said; give the birthplace and this site’s calculator takes it off for you.
- From 1 Apr 1974, 00:00 to 1 Oct 1974, 00:00 · 60 minutes ahead
- From 1 Apr 1975, 00:00 to 1 Oct 1975, 00:00 · 60 minutes ahead
- From 1 Jul 1979, 00:00 to 1 Oct 1979, 00:00 · 60 minutes ahead
Times are on the local clock: when each began the clocks went forward, and when it ended they went back.