Mapping 'Ancient' Chinese Antarctica

International audience I examine how modern cartography may support the traditional perception of the Chinese landscape by studying the rendition of that environment asfar away from China as geographically possible. I discuss the ways in which map-readers can combine the metaphors of geomancy and mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Forêt, Philippe
Other Authors: Centre d'Etudes pour le Développement des Territoires et l'Environnement (CEDETE), Université d'Orléans (UO)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2001
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02524526
Description
Summary:International audience I examine how modern cartography may support the traditional perception of the Chinese landscape by studying the rendition of that environment asfar away from China as geographically possible. I discuss the ways in which map-readers can combine the metaphors of geomancy and modernity when they compare the maps that Chinese scientists have compiled on King George Island, Antarctica. Connotations, suggestions and discrepancies in the naming of the island features play a crucial role in my construction of a coherent system for the ancient interpretation of a newly built landscape. I can therefore explain how the metaphorical cartography of a site has assisted in creating a cultural environment that has subjectively displaced the physical environment of insular Antarctica.