Mapping 'Ancient' Chinese Antarctica

• 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: Antartique; Cartographie; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; King George Island; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02524526

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.