Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to Prof. David Der-wei Wang, my adviser, for his unwavering support and encouragement through all these years at Harvard and beyond. Not only has he taught me how to become a scholar; more important, he has shown me what it means to be a teacher. I am also deeply indebted to Prof. Chen Sihe at Fudan University, who first inspired me to work on this project. Since the days when I was an undergraduate in his class, my “boss,” as we affectionately call him, has placed his faith in my future in academia and supported me, generously and unfailingly, through every turn of my life. I would also like to express my profound gratitude to my other professors in both Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Shanghai, who have steadied my steps even long after my graduation: Wang Anyi, Zhang Wenjiang, David Damrosch, David F. Elmer, Gregory Nagy, Wai-yee Li, Huang Yang, Jennifer Li-chia Liu, and Pan Huaxin.During this first decade of my faculty career, as I worked on this monograph, I owe deep thanks to the mentors and colleagues who have helped me move forward: Robert Tierny, Kai-wing Chow, Po-Shek Fu, Jerome L. Packard, Alexander Mayer, Antony Augoustakis, Misumi Sadler, Shao Dan, Roderick Ike Wilson, Mariselle Meléndez, Carol Symes, Matthew S. Winters, Clara Bosak-Schroeder, Waïl S. Hassan, Jeffery T. Martin, Naoko Gunji, Gian Piero Persiani, Yunwen Su, Christopher Callahan, Jeeyoung Ha, Chie Nozaki, Bing Wang, Yuchia Chang, Thomas Moran, Amy Dooling, and Katherine Youhui Wang. I particularly would like to thank Prof. Zong-qi Cai, whose warm support as a colleague in Champaign remains a sweet memory, and whose guidance as the chief editor for this Prism monograph has been a blessed fortune for its author. I am equally grateful to the editors at Prism and Duke University Press, Jerry Junzhe Wang, Charles Brower, and LaRose Davis, who were extremely patient and helpful when the manuscript was being prepared for publication.I want to thank all the friends, classmates, and colleagues who have offered suggestions to this project at its various stages and who have helped me through all the perplexities along the way: Mrs. C. T. Hsia, Li Zhang, Leo Ou-fan Lee, Chen Jianhua, Haun Saussy, Wang Hui, Michel Hockx, Xiaobing Tang, Xudong Zhang, Haiyan Lee, Mei Chia-ling, Peng Hsiao-yen, Charles Laughlin, Shengqing Wu, Liu Jianmei, Michael Berry, Mingwei Song, Calos Rojas, Eileen Chow, Michael Hill, Nicolai Volland, Xiaojue Wang, Weijie Song, Enhua Zhang, Uganda Sze Pui Kwan, Géraldine A. Fiss, Alexander Des Forges, Martin Woesler, Tie Xiao, Chen Yingchi, Fu Jie, Zhang Xinying, Song Binghui, Gao Yuanbao, Duan Huaiqing, Yan Feng, Wang Guangdong, Fu Guangming, Wang Hongtu, Nie Wei, Wen Guiliang, Zheng Naxin, Liu Qun, Liu Cunling, Huang Dehai, Zhang Dinghao, Wu Yaling, Patrick Finglass, Adrian Kelly, Michael Konaris, Claude Calame, Helen Morales, Liu Jinyu, Fan Xin, Federica Ciccolella, Chia-chien Kao, Hu Jinlun, Andy Rodekohr, Angie Lai, Jie Li, Qian Ying, Chien-hsin Tsai, Satoru Hashimoto, Cassy Lee, Vivian She, Qiaomei Tang, Ying Lei, Tarryn Li-Min Chun, Yanping Zhang, Dylan Suher, Kyle Shernuk, Xiaolu Ma, Jessica Tan, Tu Hang, Dingru Huang, Hangping Xu, Jin Li, Fu Yuehui, Kang Ling, Lili Xia, Kang Zhou, Wenwen Gou, Panpan Gao, Zhang Zhi, Du Ying, Xiong Ying, Wang Chen, Yanxiao He, Liu Zhen, and Huang Jing, among so many others. I also remember, with a quiet pain, the friends who have departed over the years: Lin Jianfa, Liu Wei, Zhou Yi, Tang Haidong, and Zheng Guodong.My gratitude is also owed to Zhou Jiyi (grandson of Zhou Zuoren), Luo Jinlin (son of Luo Niansheng), and Chang Li (daughter of Chang Feng). Their generosity in sharing the precious materials I needed for this book has touched me deeply. I would also like to thank the staff at the Lu Xun Museum in Beijing and at the Harvard Archives for their kindness and assistance.Outside academia, I extend my heartfelt thanks to the friends Yu Ge, Ding Yuanqi, Chen Yan, Wang Li, Xu Minxia, Xu Jue, Zoe Zhou, Gu Yi'an, Ye Sha, Zhou Weiliang, Wang Yiqing, Pu Yun, Samar Derpa, Lili Zeng, Xiao Wendan, Yuan Benfang, Liu Shihong, Mia Yanru Liao, Jiang Ren, Yuan Jiayi, Jiang Chaoxian, Liu Lei, Xu Tao, Zhang Yu, Lin Jun, Lin Xinran, Su Liang, Li Xuefeng, Yu Shanming, Ying Mingsen, Lian Jie, Zhang Shaoting, Yaoying Dai, Wu Bingzhang, and Zuo Yu'ang. And above all, to the doctors Sun Jing, Zhang Jiayou, Liu Lianyong, Li Lingqiao, Sabrina Khan Jones, Cen Rong, You Wen, and Liu Qi, whose steady kindness has carried me and my family through the long and sometimes weary years of writing this monograph. My fondest affection is for Shane Shanyue Zhong, Rachel Zijun Wang, and Yining Zhu, my students-turned-friends, whose companionship through so many shared meals lit up the otherwise dim winter evenings in remote college towns blanketed in snow. After these dear girls graduated, the evenings then unfolded in unhurried conversations with my husband, who carries my most tender thought. And it is in those same twilight hours, seven thousand miles away from Shanghai, that I feel the deepest gratitude to my parents, who have given me the most essential, unconditional support and understanding of my life. This monograph is dedicated to my father and my mother.—Jingling ChenChampaign, Illinois, November 28, 2024