Rhodes Murphy Research

Rhoads Murphey(1919-2012)was a famous geographer and historian in United States.As one of the most outstanding China Experts in the post-1945,Professor Murphey was a pioneer in the field of urbanization in the region and has been the president of Association for Asia Studies in 1987-88.Meanwhile he was the student of John King Fairbank and schoolmates and friends of Benjamin Schwartz and Joseph Levenson.Professor Murphey is especially well known for his first book,Shanghai:Key to Modem China(1953),at home and abroad.After that his research involved all kinds of major colonial port cities in Asia,and his research view changed from pay attention to the factor of economy and geography to culture,history and tradition.Then he started to construct the whole Asian history based on his early study in China.India and other counties of Asia.Thus Professor Murphey made a great contribution to advocating the use of comparative methods to study the whole history of Asia.In the view of Professor Murphey's academic research development,his research started with urban studies in Shanghai,China,and then he expanded his research perspective to the colonial port cities of East Asia,Southeast Asia,and South Asia.Based on these early studies,Professor Murphey attempted to construct Asian history in his later years.In this context,the "Impact-Reaction" theory and "Traditional and the modern" paradigms became his main interpretative frame for explaining the Asia history.Professor Murphey 's scholarship also has his own distinctive personal characteristics,he was good at using comparative methods to study Asia issues.Secondly,as a jack of all,Professor Murphey has not only studied extensively,but also made great contributions to the Association for Asia Studies in addition to writing books and teaching.He has been editor of the journal of Asian Studies since 1959 and later served as executive secretary,vice president and chairman of the Association for Asia Studies.See above,his entire academic career was closely related to the Association of Asia Studies,and the work experience of Association of Asia Studies also had an impact on his academic research,laying the foundation for his advocacy of adopting comparative method to study the Asia history in his later years.Throughout Professor Murphey's China Studies for more than 60 years,Professor Murphey experienced the beginning,growth,and vigorous stages of development of China Studies in the United States.He is a witness of the development of China Studies in the United States.By sorting out his academic research context,we can deepen our understanding of the development of American Studies in the United States from a personal perspective and further understand its academic schools and spectrum.