Reorienting the narrative: Chapin Jr.’s ‘Red China’ map

Abstract

All maps support spatial narratives. But some narratives are more impressive – or rather impressing – than others. Spatial narrative here refers not to the story being explicitly shown in a map, but rather the implicit meanings that people are likely to receive from a map. Maps that excel at persuasion are often designed to promote deeper interpretation than is explicitly presented. They are embedded with implicit cues, subliminally targeting, reinforcing, and disarming map users’ everyday belief systems. Frankly, most maps don’t do this well and that’s okay. Most people don’t want their beliefs about Danish geopolitics reinforced or contested when looking at a tourist map of Aarhus. Some maps, though, are exemplars of implicit narrative building. This essay is about one such map. Red China by Robert M. Chapin, Jr. is, on the surface, a reference map. No different than a tourist map of Aarhus, really. Except spend a short while looking at it, and it becomes apparent it is a subliminal masterpiece. A compelling, designed narrative reinforcing a popular belief in ‘the domino effect’ of global communism (Figure 1).