August 2003
Beginner to intermediate
560 pages
12h 58m
English

This eighteenth-century Chinese map represents the whole world. In the center and taking up most of the space is China, surrounded by perfunctory representations of other countries. This was a model of the world appropriate to that society, which had intentionally turned inward. The worldview that the map represents must not have been helpful in dealing with foreigners. Certainly it would not serve modern China at all. Maps are models, and every model represents some aspect of reality or an idea that is of interest. A model is a simplification. It is an interpretation of reality that abstracts the aspects relevant ...
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