ABSTRACT
Mapping is a key method of state place-making, and an effective political tool, not the least when it poses as a ‘scientific’ technique that faithfully reproduces the ‘objective’ or ‘natural’ world. As described in Chapter 4, the introduction of new place names and the physical marking of the landscape with the history of Chinese Communism were important to the integration of Diqing into the People’s Republic. By reconstructing local geographies to emplace a mythical history of the Communist regime, agents of the state sought to point the ‘frontier’ areas in a new direction: towards the ‘New China’ (Chinese: Xinhua). Once communes took over production, indigenous land ownership and power structures were completely refigured. This revolution also involved a radical reinterpretation of the meaning of place, and a spatial redrawing that erased any signs of the sacred, whether on the body, built structures or the landscape itself. Even after communes had been dismantled and land redistributed, place names, monuments, signs and exhibits served as constant reminders of the Communist map of Diqing.
