我是谁？：段义孚自传

Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography

by Yi-Fu Tuan, 段义孚, 志丞 (Translator)

将至古稀，知名美籍华裔地理学家、人文主义地理学之父段义孚回溯了自己的人生。他把童年放在世界格局的大舞台中联动叙事，回忆在欧美求学的岁月，提及自己选择地理学的原因，并将自己的生理和精神特质展示给读者，坦率而真诚地完成了对自我的剖析和反思。

从中国、澳大利亚、菲律宾到英国、美国，辗转于不同文化的段义孚，是一名真正的世界主义者。他的世界，从行为和事件走向了观念和思想，超越了狭隘的地方主义，而拥抱了更为辽阔的人类文明。如何在平凡的事物与事件里，去体察个体生命的意义？怎样的人生才是美好的？段义孚的经历也许是特殊的，但他的问题却是普遍的，也正因如此，他的观念与思想，仍具有超越时空的永恒价值。

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Biography

289 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 1999

About the author

Fu Tuan (Traditional Chinese: 段義孚, born 5 December 1930) is a Chinese-U.S. geographer.
Tuan was born in 1930 in Tientsin, China. He was the son of a rich oligarch and was part of the top class in the Republic of China. Tuan attended University College, London, but graduated from the University of Oxford with a B.A. and M.A. in 1951 and 1955 respectively. From there he went to California to continue his geographic education. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

[Dilara Inam]

skimmed

appreciating beauty in things
the root meaning of aestheticism and the aestetic is feelin (yi fu tuan 104)
inclined to find an admirable aethetic impulse in every humanly made object,

place defined broadly as a center of meaning
place need not be rooated in locality, a common assumption
ship moving majestivally across the ocean is place
mother is a place, it moves.
what about portabl culture?
classical music is home, source of emotional support to music lover (106)

places are far more than tangible structures of brick and stone; they are also synedoches of human individuals and groups, they constitute human relationships, they embody human stricings and aspirations.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to go ahead and add all my Yi-fu Tuan books. Seriously, if any of you try him please let me know...he is amazing...see the review of Human Goodness in Amazon's site for a quote about this guy...I guess he's considered a philosopher...'the only scientist you can read for pleasure'....ah-h-h! Escapism is still my fav but this was very interesting as a follow up...

[Katerina Zer · Rating 5 out of 5]

La sensibilidad de Tuan se deja ver en cada oración. Consiguió hacer una autobiografía bellísima, en la que los límites entre su persona y la geografía son difusos, como lo fue durante todo su paso por la vida.

" "Salvado por la geografía" no es solo un título sugerente para un capítulo. La geografía ha dirigido mi atención hacia el mundo, en donde he encontrado, entre todas las estupideces y horrores, mucha belleza y bondad. La negligencia casi total por lo bueno es una falta mayúscula de las ciencias sociales críticas, que hace que incluso sus conclusiones más oscuras sean, paradojicamente, menos oscuras, aunque solo sea porque no están contrastadas con la brillante claridad que también conforma la imagen del hombre." (p.186)

[Jiayu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tuan's statement about the middle class is not persuasive for me, the definition is not a formula that equals high power plus a poor financial situation divided into an average outcome, especially in 1940s China.

But the elaboration on the cosmopolitan is valuable. As a highly sensitive person, I'm grateful for his honesty and accuracy about the feeling of dealing with endless time with oneself.

[Yutong Cai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most authentic autobiography that I've read. Tuan's empathy and sensitivity enabled him to put 天人合一 to an academic paradigm, the humanist geography, which sets to reveal "how geographical activities and phenomena reveal the quality of human awareness."

[麗瑩 · Rating 4 out of 5]

His crude honesty raised my sympathy. His lifelong deepening lonesome and humble heart arose resonance.

[Susanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thin book but whoah what a struggle to get through. He didn't make much effort to make it readable, but then again he's a geographer, not a creative writer... gives a little insight to a man whose focus is on our place in the world, in community, as individuals. I'd rather read one of his scholarly works, and I will.

[Amel El-Rayis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am eager to read more of his books !