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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: Zuo Zongtang's supression of the Dungan Revolt

Zuo Zongtang was a Qing general who is best known in China for putting down the Xinjiang Hui, or Dungan, Revolt (1862-1877), an uprising of Hui and other Muslim subjects in China’s far northwestern provinces. He is probably best known in the West as the namesake of General Tso’s Chicken.

The map represents Zuo’s military campaigns from 1876 to 1878. The black lines correspond to the movements of Zuo’s army, while the red ones correspond to the movements of the rebels under the leadership of Yaqub Beg. The red and blue checked area represents the extent of control of the self-proclaimed Muslim king T’o Ming, while the blue lines correspond to land controlled by Yaqub Beg’s alliance. The small red-checked region was ceded to the Russian Empire as part of the treaty ending the conflict, a concession that generated anti-Russian uproar in China.

This map highlights a fascinating period in the history of far northwest China, a region in which the Beijing government is still seeking to quell Islamic movements. During the height of the Cold War, when the map was produced, the episode would have put the Nationalist conflict with the USSR into a longer historical context.

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.