21世纪的中国与中国地理学:一场文化(地理)革命?

CHINA AND GEOGRAPHY IN THE 21^(ST) CENTURY:A CULTURAL(GEOGRAPHICIAL) REVOLUTION?

一位著名的新加坡文化地理学家,兼亚洲问题研究专家从更广的视角回顾了近年出现的中国国内外地理学者关于中国文化地理的研究,以及中国的崛起对21世纪文化地理学的影响。作者指出了中国目前正面临的六大问题,并认为如果从文化地理学的视角来看这些问题,不仅可以加深对中国的了解,还可以重塑文化地理学作为分支学科的实用性形象。这六大问题分别是:农业改革、经济改革、城市变迁、城乡移民和与其密切相关的社会不公平、不断改变的家庭结构和环境变化。作者认为,如果中国文化地理学希望最大限度地帮助本学科开发一个更加国际化的,更为包容的研究方法,就要考虑到中国面临的这些重大问题,给出有建设性的答案,并导出新的理论观念,使地理学的理论思维更加多样化。

A noted Singapore-based cultural geographer and specialist on Asia reviews the recent emergence of cultural geographic research on and within China and the implications of China＇s rise for the study of 21 st century cultural geography more broadly. She identifies six major issues modern China is confronting that, when addressed from a cultural geographical perspective, may both enhance an understanding of the country and reshape the practice of cultural geography as a subdiscipline： agricultural reform, economic reform, urban change, rural-urban migration and related social inequalities, the changing family structure, and environmen- tal change. The author argues that ifChina＇s cultural geography is to help the subdiscipline at large develop a more international and inclusive approach, it must be driven by questions of significance in China, yield con- structive answers of relevance to Cfiina, and at the same time derive theoretical ideas that diversify the collec- tive geographical imagination.