After the Second World War, in order to protect traditional territories, a group of Indigenous elites launched a joint petition to the new government for regulating the access to mountain areas from plain areas.

With the establishment of local political systems by the Chief Executive's Office, a total of more than 600 Indigenous villages were readjusted and divided into 30 townships and 162 villages. Although mayors of Indigenous townships were served by people of Indigenous origin, the lack of financial support in these new administrative regions brought hardship to the life of Indigenous residents. As a result, the Indigenous mayors pushed for tax exemption and allocation of farmland.

Indigenous legislators including Losin Watan issued a joint proposal for the Regulations on the Restriction of Access to Mountain Areas from Plain Areas, in order to control the access of lowland inhabitants and public servants to mountain areas. On January 19, 1946, the Research Committee of the Governance of Gaoshan Peoples adopted the resolution to maintain the status quo for the time being, as the Police Department of the Chief Executive's Office should inform the police staff to take note of the matter.

Meanwhile, the Committee reached the conclusion that "based on the uniqueness of mountain area administration, full-time staff shall be appointed to take charge of its associated matters." This is considered as the first time the phrase "mountain area administration " was used in official documents.

On May 16, 1946, Kaohsiung County Government submitted an illustrated atlas of its Indigenous townships to the Chief Executive's Office. Several days later, on May 22, the Civil Affairs Department of the Office replied to the County Government by stating that the maximum number of Indigenous townships in a county shall not exceed eight. The names of the townships and villages shall also be limited to two Chinese characters with specific meaning in principle. Using Japanese characters or symbols, or any form of transcription on geographic names is not allowed.

In fact, many original geographic names of Indigenous communities had been used during the Japanese colonial period, only to be spelt with Japanese katakana characters. However, the name change based on the logic of Sinicization during the post-war era had caused deep ruptures in the inheritance of Indigenous geographic names.