Acknowledgments
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.
-Winston Churchill
Researching and writing this book has been not only an adventure, but an odyssey. It has been an undertaking that could never have been accomplished without the help, generosity, and support, moral as much as material, of a great many people. Their names are legion-too many to be listed here-but a few stand out.
Most of all I would like to thank Harold H. C. Han, founder and chairman of the Himalaya Foundation, for his courage. Mr. Han is that rare combination-gentleman, scholar, and businessman. I am immensely grateful for his belief in the project as well as for the foundation's generous support-without which, it is safe to say, the book could not have been written. I am also very grateful to Sunny Gong, Snow Li, Jack Shen, and the staff at the Himalaya Foundation, which provided vital assistance during the research phase of the book.
I am greatly indebted to those who read part or all of the manuscript in progress and offered encouragement, comments, corrections, and, on occasion, objections. In particular I wish to thank Wang Ke-wen, a scholar of Republican Chinese history, who read and critiqued the draft with unstinting honesty and insight, and whose knowledge of facts and context contributed immeasurably to the book. I am very grateful to Seth Faison and Murray Rubenstein, who read the entire manuscript and offered extremely valuable comments and suggestions. I am also indebted to those who commented on sections of the manuscript: Donald Jordan, Fredrick Chien, Sabrina Birner, Priscilla Roberts, Judith Evans, John Millus, David Holmberg, Mavis Humes Baird, and Douglas Estella. Special thanks are due to Robert Reilly, who read early draft chapters and proofed the typeset galleys.
I have been privileged to work with talented researchers: Cecilia Andersson, Catherine Bellanca, Marc Bernstein, Kathy Best, Lisa Marie Borowski, Kevin Bower, Paul Brown, Ronald Brownlow, Virginia Buechele, Lan Bui, Anupreeta Das, Diane Fu, Stefanie Koch, Snow Li, Janet Liao, Bernard Scott Lucius, Glenda Lynch, Sean Malloy, Brian Miller, Greg Murphy, Janet Murphy, Jane Park, Katherine Prior, Hayet Sellami, Mr. Shen, Jill Snider, Tseng Yun-ching, Karen Tsui, Wang Chieh-ju, Wu Shih-chang, and Xu Youwei. Thank you all for your diligence.
I am grateful to patient and helpful archivists, especially (but by no means limited to) those at the following institutions: the Academia Historica; the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) Archives; the Wellesley College Archives; the Hoover Archives; Wesleyan College; the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University; the Library of Congress Manuscripts Division; and the New York Public Library. I would also like to thank Cecilia Koo Yan Zhuo-yun, Jiao Wei-cheng, and Nancy Chi at the Republic of China National Women's League, as well as Cynthia Yen, librarian at the China News (now Taiwan News), and Isabella Chen, librarian at the China Post.
I thank some of the many others who have variously offered ideas, materials, insight, inspiration, encouragement, and/or commiseration (in no particular order): Pamela Howard, Shih Chih-yu, Fredrick Chien, Wang Fong, Bo Yang, Chang Ping-nan, Larry Zuckerman, Peter Montagnon, Robert Thomson, Clara Chou, Betty Lin, Sandra and Chi-yu Li, Roxanne and Chi-hsien Li, Ren Nienzhen, Antonio Chiang, Eva Chou, Jeff Yang, Jay Taylor, Mei-fei Elrick and Malcolm Rosholt, Sabrina Birner, Ping Lu, Chou Wei-peng, Yang Shu-biao, Deborah Gage, Ulrick Gage, Nancy Zi Chiang, Israel Epstein, Tom Grunfeld, Stephen Endicott, Diane Allen, Craig Keating, Sue Hacker, John Cline Bassett Jr., Leo Soong, Adele Argento, Edith Hay Wyckoff, Chow Lien-hwa, Chen Peng-jen, Wang Ziyin, Ann M. Jernigan, Mrs. Claude Flory, Hau Pei-tsun, Anna Chennault, John Chang (Chang Hsiao-yen), I-Cheng Loh, Feng Hu-hsiang, Chin Hsiao-yi, Lin Chien-yeh, Alice Chen, Wang Chi, Ann Maria Domingos, and Gen. Robert L. Scott.
Special thanks to the Writers Room and the Aubergine Café, for offering sanctuary while I drafted the manuscript. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Dawson and Crystal Moh for cheerful help with inputting edits to the manuscript.
I am grateful to the many friends and acquaintances who generously let me stay in their homes while I was doing research in far-flung places, including Lee and Kathy Merkle-Raymond, Vaughn and Abby Chang, Scott and Betsy Tyson, Emmanuelle Lin, Vivian Makhmaltchi, Nancy Li, Berta and Andrew Joncus, Erik D'Amato, Joanne Omang and David Burnham, and Mandy Holton.
I would also like to add a special word of thanks to all the moms, friends, and relatives who babysat or offered playdates, sleepovers, or school pickups and drop-offs for our daughter Sienna while I labored to complete the manuscript: Kenneth and Regina Tyson, Roberta Tyson, Angela Bayer, Brenda Zlamany, Anita McDaniels, Mary Daalhuyzen, Jeffrey Li and Grace Sun, Janet Estella, Vivian Lee, Jeannie Conway, Vita Ose, and Betty Mei.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, Richard Li, for his support and patience; my mother, Roberta Tyson, for inspiring in me an early interest in history; Morgan Entrekin, Grove/Atlantic's publisher, for staying the course; Margaret Stead for her bold and expert edits; Amy Hundley for her tactful shepherding; Tom Cherwin, for his careful copy-editing; and my agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman, for her initial belief in the project and continuing support.