Finding the Way: A Tribute to Geography

By James Chan

One June 1, my lifelong companion and I bought a condo at The Philadelphian, right next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When I opened the mailbox of our unit guess what I found? A copy of the latest Annals of the AAG (American Association of Geographers) with the previous owner’s name on the label. The presence of that journal struck me like a message from Providence. It reminded me of my geography training and—now at age 76 and after nearly 55 years of work both within and outside of the field—made me wonder: could a discipline which I once thought had led me astray have actually been my lucky star? Here is my geography story.

No sooner had puberty awakened me to the need for an education in this chaotic world than I realized I excelled at geography in high school. I became a geography major at the University of Hong Kong and graduated in 1970. In 1971, the University of Chicago accepted me as a foreign student in their geography department. I studied under Marvin Mikesell (cultural geography) and Paul Wheatley (historical geography of East and Southeast Asia), graduating in 1973. I then went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to work with Rhoads Murphey (China, India, and regional geography), earning my Ph.D. in 1977. Peter Gosling (Southeast Asia) and George Kish (Soviet Union) were my other geography advisors. Professor Chang Chun-shu (History of China) was the only non-geography member of my doctoral committee.

In the late 1970s, as now, tenure-track jobs in geography were scarce. I had a one-year stint at Boston University and a brief stay at SUNY Cortland, teaching cultural and world regional geography, along with a course I created on China. Personal issues at the time compounded the shortage of good jobs in geography, so I left academic teaching and worked at Academic Press, Inc., a scientific publisher in New York, where I served as China Area Manager and then International Promotion Manager for two years. Corporate politics made me want to leave an otherwise good position. In May 1983, I set up my own consulting practice, helping American manufacturers, database companies, and professional associations do business in China and Asia. I’m still an independent consultant, doing what I love—something I literally cooked up on my own.

For several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was lucky to befriend Woody (Forrest) Pitts, whose work at the University of Hawai‘i specialized in Japan, Korea, and quantitative methods. I used to complain to him about the lack of career opportunities in geography and how I felt “let down” for having chosen it as my specialty. Woody, kind and supportive, told me I was wrong to feel that way. Intellectually, I agreed with him. But emotionally, I couldn’t stop blaming geography for a career I thought I would never find.

In truth, I was disingenuous with myself. It is true that I never became an academic or research geographer, and business consulting has never been seen as a natural path for geography majors. Yet my knowledge of geography contributed to the epiphany I had about working in international consulting.

One day in church, I made a vow: I wanted to help pull China and America closer through trade. A deep calm and sense of peace came over me the moment that idea struck. Now, as an independent business consultant with a Ph.D. in China geography and cultural geography, I’m reminded by the serendipitous Annals of the AAG in my mailbox that what I’ve been doing is still deeply, intimately geographical.

Imagine me at the nadir of a troubled life when I was in my late 20s and early 30s, seeing myself as Hercules standing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, pulling China and America closer—moving the tectonic plates themselves. Isn’t that a quintessentially geographical idea?

In April 1979, while I was a young geography professor at SUNY Cortland, Clifton Pannell (University of Georgia, urban, economic and cultural geography of China and East Asia) invited me to give a paper on China. I traveled to Philadelphia from Cortland, New York to attend the 75th Anniversary of the AAG annual meeting, which was held at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. In the evening of April 22, 1979, I met my lifelong companion by chance in the city. Our meeting has turned Philadelphia into my home and the United States of America into my adopted country.

Now you know why that latest issue of The Annals turned out to be such a revelation. Geography as a subject works mysteriously for me.

Perspectives is a column intended to give AAG members an opportunity to share ideas relevant to the practice of geography. If you have an idea for a Perspective, see our guidelines for more information.