Maps
‘The?map of the world?is always changing; sometimes it happens overnight. All it takes is the blink of an eye, the squeeze of a trigger, a sudden gust of wind.’ (Anderson Cooper)
I ordered a large and colourful map of South East Asia for my bedroom wall recently. When it arrived, it was subtly different to the one that had been advertised and clearly depicts a Chinese?geopolitical?view of the region. Taiwan is colour-coded the same as China and the internationally-disputed?9-dash line?is boldly marked around the whole of the South China Sea. It struck me how simple representations on a map can both reveal and aim to create a very specific?cultural and political view?of the world.
I have another large and colourful map of the Earth mounted on the wall above my desk. This one shows the world as ‘upside down’, although the names on the ‘countries’ are still written the ‘right way up’. It feels strange and disorientating to look at and reveals, experientially, how fixed we can become in the representations we hold of of the world we have been?taught and?learned?since childhood. A world map is also a mental map. Every portrayal is an implicit human?construct. Nothing is simply ‘how it is’.