{"id":4793,"date":"2019-10-23T12:33:45","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T11:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=4793"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:53:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:53:20","slug":"the-girl-the-yeti-and-the-cows-tongue-why-maps-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/the-girl-the-yeti-and-the-cows-tongue-why-maps-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"The girl, the yeti and the cow\u2019s tongue \u2013 why maps matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Professor Peter Vujakovic explains why a map in the new animation film, Abominable, is causing controversy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It is not often that an animated film aimed at children hits\nthe headlines as a source of geopolitical provocation. However, this is exactly\nwhat has happened with the latest production from the world-famous DreamWorks\nAnimation studio. Known for such movies as Shrek,\nKung Fu Panda <\/em>and How to Train your\nDragon<\/em>, its new release Abominable<\/em>\nhas raised the hackles of several states bordering the South China Sea (SCS). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map appears to be incidental to the film\u2019s narrative, but its very existence in this high-profile production has reportedly caused Vietnam to \u2018pull\u2019 the movie and calls for it to be boycotted in the Philippines. <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The film about Yi, a Chinese girl who rescues a baby yeti, has\nbeen made with a growing Chinese audience in mind and is a co-production with\nPearl Studio of Shanghai. The controversy hinges on a shot of a wall-map of\nChina hanging in a hide-away that Yi has built on the roof of her apartment\nblock. It shows what has become know as the U<\/em>-shaped\nline or so-called \u2018nine-dash line\u2019 that represents China\u2019s claim to a large\npart of the SCS. The U<\/em>-shaped line is\nalso contemptuously known as the \u2018cow\u2019s tongue\u2019 by its opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally drawn as an eleven-dash line in 1947 by the\nnationalist government (adopted by the People\u2019s Republic in 1949), two dashes\nwere removed following an agreement with Vietnam of a maritime boundary in the\nGulf of Tonkin in 2000, reducing the number to nine. Latterly a tenth dash was\nadded to the east of Taiwan. This final manifestation courted controversy when\nit was subtly included as part of the map of China in passports in 2012; the Philippines\nand Vietnam protested, branding the new design a violation of their sovereignty.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the controversy? The maritime area contained within the U<\/em>-shaped line is vast and overlaps with\nthe claims of several other states. It includes zones with potential oil and\ngas resources, as well as rich fisheries. Much of the issue is linked to\ncontested islands and shoals, such as the Spratleys and Paracels, ownership of which\ncould allow a state to claim a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).\nChina\u2019s construction of \u2018islands\u2019 by building up reefs and adding\ninfrastructure, for example, the controversial air strip on Fiery Cross Reef,\nhas fuelled the concerns of other states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018nine-dash\u2019 version was made famous as part of a Chinese\nresponse to the UN in protest at a Malaysian-Vietnam submission to the Committee\non the Limits of Continental Shelf. China has been clever in its use of the\nline. Its meaning remains ambiguous and open to interpretation. According to\nthe US Department of State, \u201cChina has not clarified through legislation,\nproclamation or other official statements the legal basis or nature of its\nclaims associated with the dashed-line map.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An astute use of strategic ambiguity and gestalt psychology,\nit uses reification, the mental process of ‘bringing into being’\n(characteristic of many visual illusions), to allow the reader to fill in the\ngaps between the widely spaced dashes, reinforcing a sense of solidity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map in Abominable<\/em>\nmay simply be an innocent representation of one of the contents of a typical\nChinese child\u2019s bedroom or hide-away, but it has reminded us of the power of\nmaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Vujakovic is Professor of Geography<\/a>. He has written extensively on maps and geopolitics, including a recent research paper on the western news media coverage of the U-shaped line. He is co-editor with Dr Alex Kent of The Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Peter Vujakovic explains why a map in the new animation film, Abominable, is causing controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":4802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[601,685,3902],"tags":[3082,698,686,3086,694,3085],"class_list":["post-4793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-and-tv","category-geography","category-research","tag-abominable","tag-geopolitics","tag-maps","tag-nine-dash-line","tag-south-china-sea","tag-u-shaped-line"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Jeanette Earl","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/10\/Abominable.jpg","postExcerpt":"Professor Peter Vujakovic explains why a map in the new animation film, Abominable, is causing controversy.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4793"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7669,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions\/7669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}