時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East / Map of the Present Situation), newer version with English labels
A Chinese pictorial map of about 1900 shows a Russian bear over Manchuria and Mongolia, a British lion-bulldog in south and east China, a French frog in Indochina, a US eagle over the Philippines and Japan's rising sun off Korea, while Qing officials sleep, feast or hold a coin. Margin slogans call the picture 'self-evident' and 'clear at a glance'; the staged imminent seizure of China is the fear appeal.
- Date
- 1900
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Tse Tsan-tai (謝纘泰), Hong Kong reformer; this copy from a U.S. State Department dispatch
- Region
- East Asia
- Country
- British Hong Kong
- Medium
- Issuer type
- Movement
- Regime
- British Hong Kong
- Leader
- Henry Arthur Blake
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Empire and colonialism, War and the military
- Event
- Scramble for Concessions in China
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (National Archives image, via DPLA), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (Commons: PD-China, author d. 1938; US federal record, NARA ID 5634178)
Tse Tsan-tai (謝纘泰); U.S. National Archives (NARA ID 5634178) via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
時局圖 [right margin] 不言而喻 [left margin] 一目了然 西伯利亞 SIBERIA 俄國 蒙古 MONGOLIA MANCH COREA 日本國 JAPAN THE RISING SUN (JOHN BULL & I WILL WATCH THE BEAR) 太平洋 [ring on the lion's tail] [G?]ERMAN AMBITION SAUSAGE THE OPEN DOOR THE [illegible] CHINA FASHODA COLONIAL EXPANSION [on the eagle] [BLOOD] IS THICKER [THAN W]ATER THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS BORNEO BURMAH SIAM COCHIN CHINA ANAM TIBET 西藏 EASTERN TUEKESTAN HONG KONG HAINAN [many further province and place names in Chinese and English, e.g. YUNNAN, KWONG SI, KWONG TUNG, FUKKIEN, CHEKIANG, HONAN, KIAOCHOW, WEIHAIWEI, CHUSAN; smaller labels [illegible]] 版權所有翻刻必究
Map of the Present Situation [right margin] It goes without saying [left margin] Clear at a glance Siberia Russia Mongolia Manchuria Corea Japan The Rising Sun (John Bull & I will watch the bear) Pacific Ocean [ring] German ambition sausage The Open Door Fashoda colonial expansion [eagle] Blood is thicker than water The Philippine Islands (remaining English labels as printed above) All rights reserved; reprinting will be prosecuted
Read at 1280 px from a 3915 px scan. Lettering on the lion's ring, the lion's body and the eagle is small or partly hidden by the animals, so those lines are marked or bracketed. The last Chinese line is the copyright notice.
