December 5, 2008
Dear Colleague,
Happy Birthday to our dear friend and colleague, Yi-Fu Tuan ! Below are some birthday greetings sent in for Yi-Fu:
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Dear Yi-Fu:
Please accept my greetings on your birthday. We've never met, although once I traveled to the Twin Cities for the fest on the occasion of your departure from the U of M. I was wedged in the back, sitting on a table as I recall. It's been a long time since I left academic geography and I've spent the past quarter-century in intelligence work. But, I've enjoyed your books immensely over the past 30 years. Once, I even tracked down a copy of The Hydrological Cycle and the Wisdom of God, which still graces the shelf in my bookcase which contains your works.
Not only have your writings brought me many hours of pleasure, but they have stimulated my own thoughts in the most unlikely ways. I wish you many productive years and I look forward to your next publication.
Regards, Dave Hanson
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Happy Birthday to you, may inspiration be found in every step!
Joe from Buffalo, NY
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I really want to wish you a great day, long life and happiness. I haven't seen you or even written you, but I feel you are like a close friend, just reading your books. I am a social sciences teacher in Medellín, Colombia. Your books have been a great inspiration in my classes and in my master degree. I hope to see you someday, soon.
Jaime Andrés Parra Ospina
Universidad de Antioquia
Medellín, Colombia
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Happy Birthday from fellow Tientsinners living here, there and everywhere all over the world and all over Israel and who have deputed me (also your fellow Tientsinner) to wish you a Happy Birthday, Many Happy Returns and many, many thank you's for sharing your wisdom and humour. As the old Jewish wish has it, may you live to be 120 in good health and we should continue benefitting from your wisdom and humour.
Alex (Au SSe Ke) Auswaks, Jerusalem, Israel
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Dear Professor Tuan:
I'm a student of Ecology Institute in Providence University in Taiwan, R.O.C. I started to read your thoughts from Topophilia two years ago. That’s a very different point of view and approach for a student who has studied four years of plant taxonomy but tried to find some other way to approach to humanistic ecology in institute. That was a very fortuitous encounter. My adviser is a professor of philosophy; he guided me to study your thoughts and try to find my study subject. Indeed, I learned so many from you, all the ways you view the world are so delicate and sincere. I still remember how my worldview having been changed from monochrome to colorful and richness and that is a result of influence from you and my adviser.
I’m especially moved by your new book Human Goodness. Last week when I seriously finished the reading of the Good Life, I felt something unfinished but I just couldn’t explain completely. This week I begin the reading of Human Goodness. I’m so excited in these thoughts. Just like another door being opened and the adventure continuing……
I’m so glad to have the opportunity to send you the birthday greeting. I also hope maybe we’ll have the chance to communicate profoundly….. Anyway, thank you for all the abundant ideas that enrich my life and Happy Birthday!
Ray Tzoe
Ecology Institute of Providence University in Taichung,
Taiwan, R.O.C.
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Yi-Fu,
Happy birthday from one of your many 'academic grandchildren' in the world. I am currently working towards my PhD here in London under your student Tim Cresswell. Your writing on space and place is a keystone to all of our work - I hope I get to meet you someday!
Have a great 78th birthday!
Bradley L. Garrett
Ph.D. Candidate, Geography Department
Royal Holloway, University of London
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Your words and your works influence many people although they never tell you.
Shangyi Zhou
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Dear Professor Tuan,
After three years of PhD. studies I couldn't figure out how to deal with my trans-disciplinary approach to townscapes. And then your books appeared in my scientific (but also personal) life. They became some kind of bridge between physical geography and wider, more humanistic view of space, landscape etc.
I would like to thank you for an inspiration and send these humble wishes for your birthday. Stay in good health in a nice place, feel a lot of kindness in the surrounding space.
Yours sincerely,
Wojciech Mania
Department of Environmental Planning and Photointerpretation,
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland
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Sir:
Your work has been a source of enlightenment for me and I welcome this opportunity to share what a privilege it has been to read what you've written. Though we haven't met (at least through any other medium than the written word), please know that you have my best wishes for a happy birthday.
Sincerely,
Dr. Alan Nichols
Asst. Professor of Philosophy
Georgia Highlands College,
Cartersville, GA
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Yi-fu,
Happy birthday. Three people have most affected my love for geography. The first was my school geography teacher, who drew beautiful maps and diagrams in coloured chalk on the blackboard. The second was the late Denis Cosgrove, my undergraduate tutor at Loughborough, whose untimely death I learnt of inadvertently from you. And the third is you, the one of these three I have never met, though Denis was keen we should meet. May you live long, and acquire even greater wisdom, if that were possible.
All the very best,
Chris Owen, Walsall, UK (and Loughborough University Geography Department, 1987-1993)
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Happy Birthday Yi-Fu! Your work has really inspired me, especially Space and Place and Escapism. Have a wonderful birthday!
Adam Braunschweig, Kansas City, MO
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Dear Yi-Fu,
Many years ago I came across a few lines of a book review; incidentally they were written for an architectural book, but I thought they suited your books perfectly: "Lively, without ever becoming condescending...learned without ever becoming dull. A book of great charm and broad understanding." Is your next book about religion? If so, I am sure it is Religion with capital R. In any case, I look forward to your next book. Happy birthday!
Xing Ruan, Sydney, Australia
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Dear Yi-Fu,
I fondly remember the talks we had in Science Hall and in the Union. One particular talk over lunch stays with me. In the spring of 2005 we were eating together in the Student Union overlooking the terrace, and I was struggling with calling professors by their first name. With my background, I was just more comfortable with the more formal relationship. You explained to me your view on this, which included a story of first name relationships and being able to call someone up to help move furniture, since they were on a first name basis. I still laugh when I think of this (and tell my students about it)!
I wish you a very happy 78th birthday.
Regards from your West Point Geographer,
Jon Bushman
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Dear Professor Yi-Fu Tuan,
It was very nice for me to visit you ten years ago at the University of Wisconsin. You will not remember me, yet for me it remains as something very especial that visit to you and to the geography department. I admire the way you have cultivated the discipline and, although I come from another hemisphere and another way of seeing, I have always felt a disciple of your way of being a geographer. Congratulations for your birthday and thank you very much for the way you have illuminated our discipline.
Sincerely yours,
Gabriel F. Bautista
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Dear Professor Tuan,
Happy 78th Birthday from the members of the UCLA Theatre and Performance Studies Ph.D. seminar "Home & Away." Our seminar opened with readings from Space and Place, and your unique, inspiring work has remained the central guiding force of our exploration. We wish you the very best, and many happy birthdays more.
Sincerely yours,
The Students & Professor of "Home & Away" Ph.D. Program in Theatre & Performance Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
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Yi-Fu:
Happy Birthday. We offer you two perspectives on age.
"I still exist, and still enjoy some pleasure in that existence, though now in my seventy-ninth year. Yet I feel the infirmities of age come on so fast, and the building to need so many repairs, that in a little time the owner will find it cheaper to pull it down and build a new one." ---- Benjamin Franklin, letter to Mrs. Mary Hewson, 19 March 1784
"Don't complain about old age. How much good it has brought me that was unexpected and beautiful. I concluded from that that the end of old age and of life will be just as unexpectedly beautiful." ---- Tolstoy, letter to V. V. Stasov, September 1906
As for us, we look forward to many more years of Saturdays with Yi-Fu Tuan.
Sally and Lee Hansen
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Dear Dr. Tuan:
Had I not had the fortune to read "The Desert and I" years ago, I would probably still be blithely muddling my way around the world, seeking answers to questions I wouldn't even know to ask. Instead, I've engaged in a lifelong quest to understand -- or at least recognize and appreciate -- my place on this earth, with your writings as guides. I have nothing I can give you for your birthday, except for heartfelt thanks for the awareness and insight you have given me: thank you, and have a very happy today and always.
Tyra Olstad, Manhattan, KS
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Dear Dr. Tuan:
Happy Birthday!
My name is Jun-Hai Deng, a vice-professor in Tianjin Normal University, China. Thanks for your great contribution to humanism. I wish I could translate your works into Chinese and get it published, would you help me?... I can tell you good news. The Chinese version of Escapism is sold out very quickly and it is very hard to find this book in a store now.
Best Wishes to you.
Jun-Hai Deng, College of Literature,Tianjin Normal University, China
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Dear Yi-Fu Tuan,
I have not yet read your books, but tomorrow I will go to the Free Library of Philadelphia and check out at least two that are available. I can't wait to find them. It seems just as I hit a low as an artist, I come across an author whose work is a friend with just the right suggestions. I want to wish you a very happy 78th birthday. Ni de shengri kuai le!
Julie Boyer
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Dear Yi-Fu,
Many warm thoughts to you on your birthday and many thanks for all your inspiring work!
I have asked myself numerous times if my winding thoughts really belong within geography, but as soon as I reread your texts I feel at home again! Thanks for the ways you have shown that it is possible to be a humble revolutionary, and for finding words to define that abstract and yet so concrete relationship between humans and their environments.
Have a Very Happy Birthday!
Sofia Cele
Dept.
of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden.
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Dear Yi-Fu,
Best wishes for your Birthday. I have just completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne and much of your writing formed part of the framework within which my thinking took place. So thank you for all your wonderful writing to date and the opportunity to regularly read your Dear Colleague letters.
Best regards,
Maggie McCormick
Melbourne, Australia
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For Yi-Fu, My birthday greetings!
Graham Shipley
University of Leicester, UK
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Dear Professor Yi-Fu,
It has been such a pleasure to enjoy the inspiration of your works and your presence on campus. Even more so, that I, and my fellow students and colleagues, could have the honor of your participation in one of our Wednesday seminars! I still remember when I first encountered your works 'Escapism' and 'Who am I.' It was a time when I thought I had been in graduate school long enough to be immune to the academic recitals of truism. Not until I caught myself in those marvelous moments of reading your riveting thoughts, thoughts with affectionate charm and quiet fascination, thoughts that never preach for closures. You made me realize an academic career can be lived so very differently.
I will always remember in gratitude the pleasant conversations in University Club, Sunroom Cafe, and your office. Sometimes I think having Yi-Fu on campus brings a touch of sunshine to the otherwise dreary Wisconsin winters.
Happy birthday and very best wishes,
Jinting Wu
Graduate student Univerity of Wisconsin-Madison
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Happy Birthday Yi-Fu!
Cheers,
Professor John Bale
Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, UK
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