Finding a Chinese Nation-State in Foreign Maps: Geographical Knowledge, Print Culture, and Nation Building in Modern China

Cruz Guan’s paper examines the role of foreign maps in shaping the spatial imagination of a modern Chinese nation-state during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period when conceptions of China’s identity and territorial boundaries remained contested. While Chinese educated elites sought to deploy cartography to define the borders and components of an emerging nation-state, cartographers in Japan, Great Britain, and the US and their maps also actively produced visions of China that either aligned with or challenged nascent Chinese notions of modern nationhood. This paper argues that the gradual construction of a Chinese nation-state arose not only from external impositions but also functioned as a site where external and domestic forces intersected, shaping modern China’s territorial consciousness.

Focusing on historical maps—printed independently or as illustrations in texts—produced by Chinese and non-Chinese cartographers for military, commercial, and educational purposes, this study analyzes how cartographic choices delineated borders, emphasized specific regions, and obscured others. By investigating the interplay between these choices and broader geopolitical agendas, the paper demonstrates how such representations conceptualized China as a coherent, bounded space within transnational cartographic discourses, thereby influencing both foreign and domestic understandings of China’s territoriality.

Moreover, this paper interrogates how symbols, legends, and spatial hierarchies constructed an image of a Chinese nation-state, facing the realities of fragmented political control and contested sovereignty. His work situates these representations within the expanding global print culture that facilitated the circulation of these cartographic materials and their narratives. By reframing the focus on how China was portrayed through foreign cartographic lenses, the paper deepens our understanding of the intertwined processes of knowledge production, imperialism, and nation-building during a transformative era in Chinese history.