From Humanistic Geography To Spatial Aesthetics:A Study On Yi-Fu Tuan’s Theory Of Space

As a contemporary Chinese-American humanistic geographer,Yi-Fu Tuan constructed his aesthetic theory of space based on phenomenology and existentialism.He also studied aesthetic practice of perception,experience and imagination.Space,place and topophilia are core concepts of Yi-Fu Tuan’s space theory.The academic research of Yi-Fu Tuan corresponded the theories of "spatial turn" after 1950s.With the changes of social practice and the style of existing in the age of post-modernity,"spatial turn" occurred in western academic world.Different from the "time-history"notion of classic aesthetics,theories of "spatial turn" proposed space as a way of perceiving and experiencing the world,which fostered a new theory called spatial aesthetics.The focus of Yi-Fu Tuan’s theory was the direct experience of man in his lived environment and the social construction of space and place,which led to the essential relationship between man and space.The meaning of existing is the fundamental pursuit of Yi-Fu Tuan’s research.To some degree,the humanistic geography of Yi-Fu Tuan provided paradigm of discussing aesthetic activities such as perception and experience in everyday place,which expanded the range and added methodologies of contemporary aesthetics.This paper first focuses on the most important works of Yi-Fu Tuan and then trys to extract the core ideas about space.In order to explore the value of Yi-Fu Tuan’s theory,this paper compares Yi-Fu Tuan’s thoughts of space with other scholars in the era of "spatial turn".Yi-Fu Tuan defined space as "subjective space" and studied the characteristics of experience,aesthetic activities of space.Also,Yi-Fu Tuan explored the relationship among experience of existing,space and aesthetic activities.As a different perspective of space study,Yi-Fu Tuan’s theory was different from theories of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre who conducted political criticism using metaphor of space.On the contrary,Yi-Fu Tuan stressed the direct experience of man in space.To put Yi-Fu Tuan’s humanistic geography into aesthetics can lead aesthetics from abstract thinking to everyday experience.Thus,the aesthetics expanded its boundaries and obtained characteristic of interdisciplinary.