Artist's Description

Asia has the highest number of spoken languages and speakers of any continent, but many of them are overlooked by the general public. In many cases, linguists and politicians continue to debate whether some spoken forms are even languages or dialects, and linguistic diversity is rapidly fading in countries that have chosen standardization over tradition. For instance, researchers have predicted that local Sinitic language variants may disappear from most of China within two generations. It is important to document and preserve the memory of the various Asian languages, spoken by millions of people, now that they are on the verge of extinction. In this series of maps, I outline the geographic distributions of commonly used languages of the Asian continent in their native, written forms and the different Sinitic languages across the region.

Medium: Digital drawing

About the Artist

John Lin is an Asian American student from Sugar Land, Texas who is fluent in English and Mandarin and can speak some other Sinitic variants. John enjoys combining interests in biology, policy, and cultural heritage through amateur cartography and artwork.

Notes from the Artist

• I used the U.S. Census Bureau definition of 'Asian' to dictate the boundaries of this map.

• I adhered to the UN-recognized line of control in the Himalayas, according to the Simla Agreement.

• The official, standard languages of all of the countries on this map are represented in their native forms. I also added the Rohingya, Uyghur, and Tibetan scripts to raise awareness about their plights.

• The Sinitic language map is based on documented survey and historical data.