I recently wrote this after a trip to the World Expo. Once again I saw something that was done in a way other than my habit. And my question was, “Why do most of the maps posted in the Expo Park not serve their function – directing visitors to their destinations.” Most everyone I asked did not even understand the question let alone have an answer.
It became the impetus for me deciding to select a few bits of past commentary to provide a guide to behaviors and social conventions that the first time visitor to China may find confusing. I will soon be posting the resultant guide, “This is China.”
“You Are Here”
Saturday, June 26, 2010
I like maps. It is all about feeling in context, I suppose. I want to have an idea where I fit in space. I like History too, it puts you in the context of time and Ecology because I want to know where I fit in the real scheme of things – in the process of life, if you will. These are all good topics for other essays, but here I want to focus on the work of the cartographer – who is supposed to help us orient ourselves within the invisible grids that define our location upon the planet.
I once overheard a couple in the park. They were looking at the posted map of their location. He had just pointed out to her the “You are Here” red dot on the map. Her response was a very puzzled, “How do they know where we are?”
Now, many of you may find this humorous, most likely because you have the reasonable expectation that anybody reading a marked map with a “You Are Here” indication on it must be where the sign is placed to read it and furthermore that the sign is correct and placed in the correct location.
But not so fast. Is this just another “common sense” cultural assumption that we have made ? Well, maybe so! If the “You are Here” signage at recently opened World Expo is any indication there is no attention here to placing a locator map in the correct location, or more precisely orienting it in the right direction. Let me explain.
Here, as every other place in the World, the Chinese follow the universal convention (perhaps obsessively so as you will soon see) that North is at the top of the map, East is to the right, West to the left…etc. So far so good.
Now to properly ‘orient’ yourself on the land you need to have the North of the map facing the North of the land. From there if you want to go east you will know that you need to go right, if west to the left and so far. This is easy enough to do when you have a hand-held map. Just turn (orient) the map and yourself so the map is aligned with your position on the ground.
With a posted map – one that is permanently fixed in position, in order for it to correctly serve its function – to show where you are and which direction you need to go to get someplace else, it needs to be oriented in the same direction as the topography it represents (i.e. North facing North…etc.). And here is where the trouble arises.
All the posted maps here are obsessively fixed with North at the top regardless of which direction they face. This works, of course, when the viewer of the map is truly facing North, but when not – when they and the map they are looking at isn’t (which, by the way, is the majority of the time), the map ceases to be an effective guidance device. In fact, worse, it will send you in the wrong direction.
So here you are at one of the World’s grand events, expecting 70 million visitors over the next six months. Most will soon learn that they need to disregard the posted maps with their “You are Here” indications and doubt as the girl of our young couple did that they really know where you are.
At the Expo it is not that bad, of course. There are thousands of helpful smiling volunteers ready to show you the way and many of the Expo’s structures are impressive , massive land-marks amongst which you can navigate your own way. However, I do wonder how visitors of some remote National Park fare with this method of posted maps and directions.
This map is in front of the China Pavilion, as you can see the “You are Here” point is to the left of the pavilion which would imply that you need to go right (East) to get to it. As you can clearly see this is not true — the Pavilion is directly in front of the map and you as you face it.
No problem when the thing you are looking for is so large — But wrong, none the less. If what you were looking for was a lot smaller and at a great distance, following these locator maps would have you going in the wrong direction.
David Sutton – 133-3180-7270
As appearing in China Daily, 5/28/10 – [bad link] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010expo/2010-05/28/content_9908649.htm
I like my version better !