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Description

Remarkable Series of Taiwanese Classroom Hanging Maps Covering the Modern History of China

Striking series of maps, The Modern History of China Hanging Map Series [中國近代史挂圖], published in the 1960s in Taipei. The colorful and graphically-compelling maps tell the story of China’s modern history from a Republican perspective from the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the Second World War.

The map series was published by the Mass Culture Society Publisher [大众文化社出版], a short-lived publisher that specialized in educational materials, under the direction of Taiwan National University Professor Lin Shoukong [林守孔].

Used as teaching aids in Taiwanese schools and universities, the series constructs a narrative of Chinese history that supported the political project of the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek in the 1960s. Overall, the series includes small scale maps, depicting macro-level developments affecting the Middle Kingdom, while two large-scale maps and numerous insets provide local-level details.

This map: “The Ten Uprisings Led by the Father of the Nation [国父领导之十次革命]” (1894-1911)

This map focuses on the career of the “Father of the Nation,” Dr. Sun Yat Sen, from his political radicalization in 1894 to the founding of the Republic of China in 1911. The mapmaker has marked ten uprisings, either led by Sun himself or inspired by him, and dated them using the traditional system of dating based on imperial reigns. In the bottom right-hand corner, a table shows the conversion of these dates into the Western dating system.

The uprisings are sequentially numbered, ending with the Wuchang Uprising and Xinhai Rebellion, which marked, from the perspective of the Chinese Nationalist Party, the end of foreign domination of China and the birth of the Chinese Republic.

The lower right-hand inset, titled “Locations of Revolutionary Societies [革命团体成为地点],” places Sun Yat Sen and his fellow Nationalist revolutionaries in a global context. Sun spent much of his life outside of China, and Nationalist success hinged on the support of sympathetic overseas Chinese, as demonstrated by the network depicted in the inset. From Honolulu to Vancouver to Boston to London to Singapore to Tokyo, Sun’s political movement’s globality is made plain to see.

The mapmaker’s choice of projection and orientation in this inset is interesting. China, depicted in imperial yellow, is swollen and central, while the other continents, arranged around the North Pole, are quite peripheral. This reflects a Chinese Nationalist worldview, which affirms the centrality of the Middle Kingdom.

For a young student in 1960s Taiwan, this map would have functioned much like a map of the military campaigns of George Washington during the American Revolution. It makes the national myth visible and affirms the importance and the rightness of the ruling regime. At a time when the enemy, the Chinese Communist Party, controlled the Chinese Mainland, it reminded students of their revolutionary inheritance.

Publishing context of the series

The 1960s were a fascinating decade in the history of the Republic of China. Taiwan was on the front line of the global Cold War, and cross-strait relations were tense. The Chinese Nationalist Party, led by an aging Chiang Kai-shek, maintained martial law on the island, and the Modern History of China Hanging Map Series reflects the political climate in Taiwan at the time. The series had to be approved by the Ministry of the Interior, indicated by the registration number given in fine print at the bottom of each map.

Born in Henan on the mainland, Professor Lin Shoukong, the historical advisor to the publisher, fled with the Nationalists to Taiwan in 1949, becoming one of the Republic’s most important intellectuals. He published several textbooks that were standard in Taiwanese schools, and it is likely that teachers used these maps in conjunction with one of these textbooks.

The keystone to the Nationalists’ political project during this period was their assertion that they were the legitimate rulers of all China, and by extension of Taiwan’s education system, and these maps in particular served to inculcate this notion in the minds of students.

Viewed in sequence, the series begin at the ethnically Han Chinese Ming Dynasty’s high point, with an inset depicting Zheng He’s Voyages throughout the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. The fall of the Ming and the rise of the Qing make up the second sub-section of maps. A majority of the maps depict developments during China’s “Century of Humiliation” (1839-1945), when weak, ethnically Manchu rulers allowed foreign powers to chip away at Chinese sovereignty leading to fragmentation and immiseration of the once-mighty Chinese empire. The final maps in the series depict the rebirth of China under Sun Yat Sen and the heroic defense of the nation against Japan by the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, omitting the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War.

The sequence implies a teleology in which the Han people, brought low for centuries by foreign oppression, would regain control of the Middle Kingdom. The maps thus reinforced the founding myth of the Chinese Nationalist Party in the minds of students facing the political uncertainties of 1960s Taiwan.

These maps are remarkable artifacts from a short-lived publishing house. They reflect an important period in Chinese and Taiwanese history.

Rarity

As these maps were ephemeral and used in a classroom setting, their survival is uncommon.  We have located only three complete sets, two in Taiwan schools and one in the National Library of Australia.

Modern History of China Hanging Map Series

Striking series of maps, The Modern History of China Hanging Map Series [中國近代史挂圖], published in the 1960s in Taipei. The colorful and graphically-compelling maps tell the story of China’s modern history from a Republican perspective from the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the Second World War. The map series was published by the Mass Culture Society Publisher [大众文化社出版], a short-lived publisher that specialized in educational materials, under the direction of Taiwan National University Professor Lin Shoukong [林守孔]. Used as teaching aids in Taiwanese schools and universities, the series constructs a narrative of Chinese history that supported the political project of the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek in the 1960s. Overall, the series includes small scale maps, depicting macro-level developments affecting the Middle Kingdom, while two large-scale maps and numerous insets provide local-level details.

Reference
Daniel Leese, ed., Brill's Encyclopedia of China (Leiden: Brill, 2009); W. Peterson, ed., The Cambridge History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); M. Rubinstein, Taiwan: A New History (New York: Routledge, 1998). JG