I would like to thank the individual and institutional support that has
accompanied this long and arduous intellectual journey that results in
this current book. The first ideas of the book originated in my graduate
study years at UC Berkeley, and I want to thank first of all Hubert L.
Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow who helped me to launch my intellectual
pursuit at Berkeley in 1990 and whose teaching in contemporary Western theory and thought prepared me to seek for an alternative route in
modern Chinese intellectuality. I would like to thank the late William
Nestrick who passed away shortly after signing my dissertation. My
sincere thanks go to Lydia H. Liu who graciously served as my thesis
advisor and whose teaching in modern Chinese literature and culture
has benefited me a great deal. My deep gratitude is owed to Wen-hsin
Yeh whose generous support over these years has been a great source
of encouragement. I would also like to thank Yu Maochun, Guo
Qitao, Andrea Goldman, my fellow graduate students at Berkeley at
the time—it was among our free, sometimes endless, sometimes heated,
conversations and debates on China that my thoughts grew. When I
moved to New York in 1997 as a Mellon Fellow at Barnard College, I
was warmly received by Irene Bloom who took personal interest and
care in my project and would show me newspaper clippings related
to Lin Yutang’s activities in New York. I am particularly grateful to
Xiao-huang Yin who first alerted me to the existence of John Day
Company files located at Princeton University library, and from there
my project took on an entirely new dimension. In New York, I also
met Diran John Sohigian whose biographical study on Lin Yutang was
pioneering work in the field, and our common interest in Lin Yutang
led to many pleasant conversations. At City University of Hong Kong,
I am grateful to Zhang Longxi who offered me valuable opportunities
to present my work in progress at the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies
under his directorship.