How does perspective affect how you see the world and your place in it?
Different people have different perspective of the world. Perspective means different viewpoints which can affect by the differences in our culture, religion, geography and politics. Although the world is always the same, we view it in different ways because of the different perspective we have. Our perspective is based on our knowledge. Those knowledges can be given by our parents, our teachers, our culture and our environments, but we can also learn it and gain it ourselves.
From the map activity that we did in class, I noticed that we all drew the map in a different way which also means that we view the map in a different way. The largest difference that I noticed was somehow the Chinese put Asia in the middle and the others put Europe and Africa in the middle. This is because those are the kind of maps that we grow up seeing it (See picture 1 and 2). I don’t think there is any wrong with placing yourself in the middle of your own map of the world. When we are younger, we put our family in the center of the universe, because that’s all we know. As we grow up our world view expand, we find out that we are not the only one in this world. Just like what King said during the discussion: “knowledge can make us feel small.” So our knowledges can affect how we see the world and also how we place ourselves in it.
There are also many other differences such as the details of the map. While most of the students in our class are Asian so that Asia is the continent that we are most familiar with and the one with most details, Victor drew South American with the most details because he’s from Brazil. As a Taiwanese I will definitely put Taiwan on the map, while other people might not even thought of Taiwan because it’s so small. The differences in our map can also due to the politics. In a Chinese map, they might put Taiwan as a province of China, but in a European or American map, they put Taiwan as a separate country. The different politics and educations can also change our view to the world.
I don’t think there is such thing as a correct or incorrect map, because we all have our own way of analyzing and presenting the map.
World map in China
World map in other countries
I do agree with you Daphne, from the images you provided we can really see the differences of perspectives in western and eastern countries. It is also very true that China always put Taiwan as a province of China in their maps. However, in Taiwan, there is no way that they will put Taiwan as a province. Instead, they will name Taiwan as Republic of China because the name is considered as the real name of the country. Which is very clear that we can see the relationship between politics and the perspective of the world.
You have used images to show clearly what you mean, Daphne, and that’s very effective. As Josh points out, you can clearly see the connection between politics and knowledge – in this case how we see the world – by the naming and/or inclusion of countries. I have to admit that I would probably not have remembered to include Taiwan or Hong Kong (although maybe HK since I have lived in China) but should include Ireland and some of the islands off the coast of the UK.
I like the way you put images in your blog, because it makes me understand your points much easier. I like your opinion that there is no such thing as a correct or incorrect map. That’s exactly what I think as well. I don’t think it is wrong to place yourself in the middle of the world, because that is what you are familiar with and best know about.
I was actually a bit surprised when I saw there is different world maps in the world instead of using one. I also agree with your idea that there is not a “wrong” map, it just depends on how you view the world. By the way, I love the images you put on to the blog post 🙂