Hasta La Ideas

Korea as a tiger: what a beautiful map. The peninsula’s shape is rendered in the image of the local big cat , also known as the Siberian, Manchurian or Altaic tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). This is done in a manner reminiscent of the Leo belgicus (see #425).

One obvious difference: tigers were actually endemic in Korea until quite recently, lions haven’t been sighted in northwestern Europe in recorded history. One obvious similarity: the predatory cat depicts a nation divided: in the belgicus case a nation now split between the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, in the Korean case, a nation still divided between the capitalist South and the stalinist North.

This map was brought to my attention by Anselm, who used it to point out the regional rivalry between Korea and Japan (nobody hates anybody like their neighbour) .

A first map shows how Japanese extremists feel about Korea (they’d rather it didn’t exist), a second one shows how Korean extremists might feel about Japan (as the excrement of the aforementioned Korean tiger).