Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Ironically, he had gone to China as representative of the British Council. Professor
H.C. Darby succeeded him as Head of the School of Geography. His Inaugural
Lecture “The Theory and Practice of Geography” made such an impression on me
that I translated it into Chinese and it was published in Tientsin in the
History and
Geography Weekly
, a supplement of the famous
Yi Shi Newspaper
on March 18, 1947.
Alas! that same issue also contained an essay I wrote commemorating Professor
Roxby who had just died in China. I have brought a photograph of that issue of the
Weekly
together with an English version of my article, for presentation to the Library
of the School of Geography.
The many new ideas on historical geography that Professor Darby developed in
his teaching have been infl uential in China, producing a new school of study that has
grown especially fast in the past decade. Just before I came abroad early this year,
we established a new Research Centre on Historical Geography along these lines in
Peking University.
There is a Chinese proverb
侞
ਫࢥݯ: “When drinking water remember the
water source.” I published a topic—a collection of my scientifi c papers which bear
on some aspects of the socialist reconstruction of China. It was natural and proper
for me to borrow the title of Professor Darby's Inaugural Lecture, simply adding the
word “Historical”: “The Theory and Practice of Historical Geography.” I am giving
a copy of the fi rst edition of this little topic to the Harold Cohen Library, which itself
is a “water source” so ocean-like that I almost drowned in it nearly 40 years ago.
My key thought for this unforgettable day is pride and gratitude that Liverpool
University has been such a bounteous source of the living water of creative thought
that fl ows from people to people and gives us all hope for the future.
Some 40 years ago, just after the Second World War, Professor Darby said it
for his particular discipline, ending his Inaugural Lecture with the following words,
by which I would like to end mine:
As I stand here amid the devastation of war on Brownlow Hill, and in Liverpool, a city with
contacts as world-wide as those of any city, I cannot help but think that the point of view of
the Geographers both abroad and at home is not without some bearing on the
New World
we
hope will be our future.
Thank you.
