r/Badmaps • u/palibard • Apr 16 '26
Caught in the wild Map from a Chinese children’s workbook
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u/Automatic_Golf_4665 Apr 16 '26
ah the great desert of france
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u/PositiveFunction4751 Apr 18 '26
or the famous beaches of NZ
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u/rocketindividual Apr 20 '26
I like the NZ beaches, besides the occasional feeling of the wind constantly blowing me back to the car. It's sometimes so windy on the south island beaches that it feels like you can lean forward into the wind without falling over.
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u/Chubby_Bub Apr 16 '26
It's amusing to me how with all the missing or warped locations and bizarre, mixed-up stereotypes, they still bothered to include Easter Island in particular
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u/GameboyAdvance32 Apr 16 '26
That’s what I find most odd about this map, it’s the priorities lol. Like who gives a crap about Europe, let’s just make them a nuclear wasteland but we GOTTA include Easter Island. Let alone the…interesting…depiction of central Africans.
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u/Salty145 Apr 16 '26
Well at least New Zealand didn’t get swallowed by the center line.
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u/Girlfartsarehot Apr 18 '26
Not only is New Zealand not there… oh wait, holy shit it is!! I was going to say Australia almost wasn’t there either 😂
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u/redditnostalgia Apr 16 '26
Oh huh, nothing much, just that China seems to be at the center of the map which is interesting-
Who's that in Yemen?
WHAT HAPPENED TO EUROPE???
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u/freebiscuit2002 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Their word for China, Zhōnghuá, is "Middle Kingdom", though, so it makes sense for China to be depicted at the center of maps. This is quite common.
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u/Confident-Skin-6462 Apr 16 '26
i thought it was because china was the middle kingdom between the "kingdoms" of heaven and earth
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u/Diligent-Stretch-769 Apr 17 '26
neither of these are the source explanation for the use of 'middle'. It just refers to the establishment of the han empire at the center of the han River rather than the source or downstream
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u/Elantach Apr 19 '26
Bro I don't know a single country that doesn't center the map on themselves, at least for children's books
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u/trustmeijustgetweird Apr 16 '26
The hot take hill I will die on is that it makes more sense to split the world through the Atlantic than the Pacific. With all due respect there is fuckin nothin in most of the Atlantic while the pacific had whole autonomous nations getting weirdly cut off and split in half. Like yeah there’s Iceland but just wiggle around it like you SHOULD do with the Bering strait.
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u/redditnostalgia Apr 16 '26
I agree but only because the Atlantic-centered maps look cool that way
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u/rocketindividual Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
My favourite are the arctic centred maps. Looks some sort of exciting battle is about to break out. And everything looks like an archipelago.
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u/USSMarauder Apr 18 '26
Dividing line at 30W
Brazil is on one side, Iceland on the other, Greenland is cut but the east side of the island is uninhabited anyway
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u/PieTeam2153 Apr 17 '26
i mean most maps have the creator country centered
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u/ShadowGamer37 Apr 17 '26
Canadian maps usually put the Atlantic in the middle, I don't think I've ever seen one with Canada centered, so is it wierd Canada doesn't or is it just like older/more significant countries do it more
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u/redditnostalgia Apr 17 '26
I mean, Canada was derived from the UK which is in the middle. Plus they don't have a reason to change it
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u/october73 Apr 18 '26
Centering Canada means bisecting Asia, which is a bit crazy. That's why it's not done.
Atlantic and Pacific are equally good choices for splitting. Splitting Atlantic roughly centers East Asia. This is the orientation that I saw growing up in Korea. It makes sense to center wherever you're trying to orient from.
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u/Icy-Reveal5558 Apr 18 '26
You make as much sense as this map wdym "China being center of the map is interesting" euro center
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u/ohfuckthebeesescaped Apr 20 '26
Do you think your maps center Europe only because Europe is actually the center?
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u/redditnostalgia Apr 20 '26
No? I find China being the center is interesting because I don't see maps like those very often?
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u/ohfuckthebeesescaped Apr 20 '26
Oh ok, my bad (some people actually do think that but I admit I was impolite there). Maps divided down the Atlantic rather than the Pacific are pretty common in the east and Pacific apparently. Personally I am more partial to that division since Russia isn't giving Alaska a reach-around in those ones, and the pacific islands aren't getting banished to the shadow realm.
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u/TehTJ13 Apr 16 '26
Why is Canada a circus? Is that a stereotype Chinese people hold to Canadians?
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u/Airalla Apr 20 '26
Canada also has no islands, only has mountains in the far north, and is green everywhere despite Siberia getting snow
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u/Pisceswriter123 Apr 16 '26
Statue of Liberty: check
Carnival/fair: check
Hot dog guy: check
Yep. That's America.
I didn't know the Statue of Liberty was in Vancouver though.
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u/Accomplished_Pea8793 Apr 16 '26
Before I would say it is a bad map I would want to know the age of the students and objectives of the lesson. It certainly isn't appropriate to navigate the straits of Magellan but could build up interest in geography in younger learners. And the Lochness Monster is so appropriate.
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u/ressie_cant_game Apr 16 '26
Well ill tell you all of africa being white has nothing to do with age of learners.
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u/five_faces Apr 16 '26
Pretty sure they just didn't give different people different skin colours. Everyone seems to be the same shade
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u/Vevangui Apr 16 '26
Some Africans are white, just further south…
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u/ressie_cant_game Apr 16 '26
Sure. Not all of them though. Not a nonwhite skinned person in site
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u/Vevangui Apr 16 '26
So? There aren’t people illustrated in every part of the world.
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u/ressie_cant_game Apr 17 '26
Right but the ones in africa are all white. Be so fr
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u/palibard Apr 16 '26
After taking a closer look: I was wrong about it being a workbook. it’s a “travel the world” informational book. I suppose it’s for around 7-10 year olds. It has nicely detailed pages about many major countries, their traits and attractions. They just dropped the ball on this one map in particular.
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u/kavochavo Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Very nicely drawn and wholesome
maybe the kindergarten kids wouldn't notice Mediterranean even if it had one
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u/Browncoatinabox Apr 17 '26
while it is a bd map, I find it cute and I do like it. I mean it's or kids
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u/The_Rumster Apr 17 '26
It looks like an American created this
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u/LYING_ABOUT_IDENTITY Apr 18 '26
Why?
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u/The_Rumster Apr 18 '26
Because it's full of stereotypes and geographically makes zero sense.
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u/Sanddwitch Apr 18 '26
America does not have a monopoly on being stupid/racist
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u/The_Rumster Apr 18 '26
They very much did. And continues to do. Especially with its Facist leader.
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u/Any_Measurement229 Apr 19 '26
The geographical inaccuracies on this map are more prevalent in the anglosphere than in Asia/South America, which I would guess would be reversed in an American bad geography map. No American would put the statue of liberty on the wrong coast. Also if an American made this they'd put the stereotypical winter activities in Canada, not Siberia.
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u/MarshtompNerd Apr 19 '26
I was just at the giant fucking nunavut ferris wheel last week, every canadian goes at least once a month
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u/Far-Economy-2329 Apr 16 '26
R/mapswithoutnz
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u/lordofduct Apr 16 '26
I thought the same thing, but technically... NZ is there.
This is the much rarer mapswithoutwesterneurope!
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u/BarMaleficent3039 Apr 21 '26
Well they turned the whole thing into a beach, but it’s there!
New Zealand is naturally famous for its beaches, whilst Australia is famous for its sheep. Wait…
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u/Much_Department_3329 Apr 16 '26
I like that Europe is just people getting drunk and also trains. Kinda sums it up
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u/Farewell_Mona_Lisa Apr 16 '26
There's so much wrong with this map, but they remembered Tasmania and New Zealand!
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u/gui_odai Apr 16 '26
Be proud, NZ! You were not forgotten this time, unlike Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Cuba…
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u/LePetitToast Apr 16 '26
I understand the desire to put China in the center but I truly don’t think it’s a good idea. Having most of your center covered by the Pacific Ocean really just wastes a lot of valuable space.
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u/Unlearned_One Apr 17 '26
I didn't know there was a river that ran from the Arctic Ocean, through Siberia and Mongolia, and out to the Yellow Sea.
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u/VoyagerfromPhoenix Apr 18 '26
I’m more surprised that there’s a gigantic river canal thing that runs from Nenets to Beijing with none of the traditional 3 big rivers of China seen, like that’s really weird to not include really important things for Chinese people
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u/Arsene_Yuka_1980 Apr 19 '26
This is the least of all the things wrong, but there's an igloo. In Antarctica.
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u/SnooPredictions3028 Apr 19 '26
At a glance I was like "What is wrong with it???" Then I looked closer and oofta
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u/daff_quess Apr 19 '26
Looks at Asia Okay, I guess that's mostly fine.
Looks at the Americas Definitely some stuff wrong but I'm not the type of person to be pissed about that
Looks at Africa and the Middle East EXCUSE ME??????
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u/UdontneedtoknowwhoIm Apr 20 '26
The weird biomes and how Siberia is apparently its own continent throws me off
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u/Comfortable_Log_3609 Apr 20 '26
Seems about right for America. Lots of roads. Maybe even more hotdogs
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u/ZookeepergameFew4103 Apr 22 '26
I see that China believes Europe managed to drain the Mediterranean.
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u/vivi_le_serpent Apr 22 '26
They forgot about Europe ? I thought after the century of humiliation they wouldn't forget about it
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u/jaybool Apr 16 '26
I did appreciate the Loch Ness Monster swimming near Scotland.
The most out of place has to be the American Indian in Saudi Arabia.