The National Museum of Scotland held meetings with the Taiwanese representative in Edinburgh after it was criticized for a map that depicted Taiwan as a part of China.
Taiwanese media reported in June that a map of China in the East Asia section at the museum in Edinburgh included Taiwan in the same color. There was a flurry of coverage and criticism on social media, then everything went quiet.
But behind the scenes, an effort has been underway to have the map changed. The meeting to discuss the map took place between senior staff at the museum, the Taiwanese representative to Scotland, and an Edinburgh city councilor. However, the encounter is yet to bear fruit.
“This meeting was an opportunity for us to listen and to explain our approach, which is not particular to China and Taiwan,” a spokesperson for National Museums Scotland told Domino Theory in a written statement. A response based on the discussion which took place is planned, but has not yet been issued due to the director of the museum being on annual leave.
The museum explained that they follow the United Nations Geoscheme for world maps throughout their displays, saying “there are many areas of contested borders or governance in the world, and it forms a basis for a consistent approach throughout the museum.”
However, Cammy Day, the Labour Party Edinburgh city councilor who was at the meeting, said the museum should “have a rethink.”
Day was the leader of Edinburgh council when a planned sister cities agreement with Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan fell through due to Chinese pressure in 2024. He welcomed Kaohsiung councillors to Edinburgh last summer under the softer “friendship agreement” the two cities ultimately formed.
The June meeting with museum staff was “positive,” Day said, characterizing the museum’s position as “we’re listening, we don’t want to offend anybody.” He said that while he would prefer if the map were changed to show Taiwan in a different color than China, at the very least it should be annotated to show that there is a dispute over the map.
The controversy around the museum map was generated by Hideki Nagayama, a pro-Taiwan activist who shared a picture of it on social media and urged users to contact the museum, and the British office in Taipei, to complain. But it appears that despite only being noticed this summer, the offending cartography has been in place since the East Asia gallery opened in 2019.
“I have already clearly and explicitly explained our position to the relevant Scottish authorities,” said Ding Chi-hua (丁志華), the director general of the Taiwanese representative office in Edinburgh. He declined to speak directly about the content of the meeting. But he did point out that ironically Taiwanese people can go to see another Scottish map a little closer to home. The National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan displays “Island of Formosa – A Missionary Map,” which was produced in Edinburgh in 1873.
It was disappointing that the National Museum of Scotland used the same color for Taiwan and China on its maps, said Chris Law, a Scottish National Party member of parliament who is also a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC. Rather than trying to defend the decision, he said the question the museum should be asking itself was: “Could I have done something better here?”
“As a Taiwanese born-and-raised scholar working in Scotland, you can imagine how upset I am,” said Hsinyen Lai (賴炘延), an associate lecturer in international relations at the University of St. Andrews. He said the National Museum of Scotland’s explanation that they are following the United Nations geoscheme was “unfortunate,” given that any geographical classification scheme is a result of political and historical narratives.
Lai pointed out that in 2019 the London School of Economics, or L.S.E., had come under pressure for the opposite reason: It had installed a huge globe as a piece of public art and Taiwan and China were depicted in different colors. After a meeting with Chinese and Taiwanese students, it was reported the university had decided to change the map, but ultimately all it did was add an asterisk next to Taiwan, which pointed to a sign which read:
“LSE is a place where people with different perspectives engage in respectful debate about major issues for the world.”
The L.S.E. globe isn’t the only time a venerable British institution has depicted Taiwan as separate from China. After Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Beijing and Shanghai in January, he shared a video about his trip on X. Almost no-one noticed the map that showed China in one shade of gray, and Taiwan and other independent countries in a different, lighter, shade.
Perhaps London is also getting a little more comfortable with gray zone activities.
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