The Wikipedia entry of Hainan in South China includes a 19th-century map depicting everyday activities and customs of the Li ethnic group in Hainan against the backdrop of a pictorial map showing administrative divisions such as counties as viewed from the north. This image is a copy of a Library of Congress collection with its main title given as “Qiong Jun di yu quan tu” or Complete map of Qiong Prefecture. It is an ink and colour hanging scroll manuscript (184 x 93 cm) with brief descriptions of the Li ethnic group in cartouches displayed near the various scenes painted on the map. In the field of history of cartography, this image tends to be identified as a map likely produced for administrative purposes. In the field of researching ethnographic mapping or the so-called Miao albums, it has been proposed to be viewed as part of the Miao album depictions, practices fuelled by the imperial court’s decade-long work of “Qing Imperial Illustrations of Tributary Peoples” (Huang Qing zhigong tu) commencing in the 1750s. In such a view, this map has also been considered as probably a work prepared for administrative usage for governance. Meanwhile, research has pointed out that many Miao albums in the 19th century had become popular objects of collector’ items meeting market niches in China and abroad. Over one hundred Miao albums have been collected worldwide. Drawing upon insights from both fields, I provide an exploration of viewing this 19th-century Hainan map as possibly an object produced through professional painting not aiming for administrative purposes but for public consumption. Through this reinterpretation, I hope to contribute to enriching the discussion on history of cartography regarding the decorative values of historical Chinese maps gearing towards public consumption, a type of map use that is relatively understudied.

Wen Lin
Newcastle University, UK

 
ID Abstract: 159