Cartographic Wars through Anna’s Classroom

Abstract

This article investigates into the politics of map making through the story of Anna Leonowens at the Siamese court from the time of its publication in the 19th century to the period where it entered the worlds of musical theater and cinema in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I. In the map scene, the rationalization of Siam’s geographic knowledge is represented as essential to its acceptance of the west’s world order and the modernization of Siam in all aspects. The scene also demonstrates that the politics of map projections have been continuously in contest between one another from the 19th century to the period of cold war. Moreover, it illustrates that the west’s geographic knowledge is inherently unstable.