Since most of our readers here at china/divide are long-time observers of China, any one of you remember those China maps that show how Chinese people from different parts of China view other parts of China? Anyone have a link to them? I ran a few internet searches in both English and Chinese but couldn’t find them. I’m probably not using the right search queries but anyone know what I’m talking about? [Update: Thanks to whichone, you can find some of them here and here, though you need to be able to read Chinese. Cheers, mate.] They were pretty funny as long as you were familiar with popular Chinese regional stereotypes.
Now for something that might be more familiar for most of our quite-Western or Westernized readers:
This is a map of how the United States views Europe and part of a collection by graphic designer and illustrator Yanko Tsvetkov titled “Mapping Stereotypes: The geography of prejudice”1.
Judging by how often I hear foreigners complaining about how smelly Chinese people are, I had forgotten that the French were victims of that stereotype as well. Commies, St. Patrick’s, and Godfather are kinda banal but Mexico and Brazil are a nice touch, as well as Resident Evil.
Here are a few more as a taste:
Anyone who has studied European history and modern society will probably recognize quite a few of the jokes in these maps. Go see the whole collection (and yes, there’s one for Gay Men too).
So now, a question: Anyone know of any similar maps for Asia. Most of us long-time observers of the region are already familiar with the stereotypes and prejudices that have arisen from the tensions and history between Asia’s major countries. Many “Westerners” certainly have a few of their own for the region. Did anyone out there ever make funny maps about them?
P.S. – While I’m at it, might as well throw this one in for good measure. I should probably relocate.