Yi-Fu Tuan

Yi-Fu Tuan (Traditional Chinese: 段義孚, born 5 December 1930) is a Chinese-American geographer.

Born in 1930 in Tientsin, China to an upper-class family and was educated in China, Australia, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. He 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.

From New Mexico, Tuan first moved to Toronto between 1966 to 1968 teaching at University of Toronto. He became a full professor at the University of Minnesota in 1968 and there began his focus on humanistic geography. He describes the difference between human geography and humanistic geography in a 2004 "Dear Colleague" letter:

Human geography studies human relationships. Human geography's optimism lies in its belief that asymmetrical relationships and exploitation can be removed, or reversed. What human geography does not consider, and what humanistic geography does, is the role [relationships] play in nearly all human contacts and exchanges. If we examine them conscientiously, no one will feel comfortable throwing the first stone. As for deception, significantly, only Zoroastrianism among the great religions has the command, "Thou shalt not lie." After all, deception and lying are necessary to smoothing the ways of social life.

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