# phpman > info > Encode::TW

Encode::[TW(3perl)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/TW/3perl/markdown)      Perl Programmers Reference Guide      Encode::[TW(3perl)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/TW/3perl/markdown)

NAME
       [Encode::TW](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Encode%3A%3ATW/markdown) - Taiwan-based Chinese Encodings

SYNOPSIS
           use Encode qw/encode decode/;
           $big5 = encode("big5", $utf8); # loads [Encode::TW](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Encode%3A%3ATW/markdown) 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](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Encode%3A%3AHanExtra/markdown). 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](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Encode%3A%3AHanExtra/markdown), 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

perl v5.34.0                      2025-07-25                 Encode::[TW(3perl)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/TW/3perl/markdown)