When you speak of Tabalong, the image that floats into many people's minds is Tabalong Elementary School. Among the more than 3000 elementary and junior high schools in Taiwan, it is the only one with three Chinese characters in its name. The changing of its name represents one of the first shots fired in the battles of the 1990s movement to change names from Mandarin Chinese to native Aboriginal languages.
提起太巴塱，許多人腦海中立刻浮現太巴塱國小，這是全國三千多所國中小學中，唯一以三個字命名的學校，也為民國八十年代初期的原住民「還名運動」打響了第一砲。