Lost in Translation

Acknowledgments

To my agent, Bonnie Nadell, and her colleague, Frederick Hill, my great thanks for believing in this book and working so hard to improve it.

I am deeply grateful to my editor, Leslie Schnur, not only for the vision and intelligence of her editing, but also for the remarkable depth of her commitment to this first novel. My appreciation also to Diane Bartoli for always being there to help, and to Laura Rossi for her terrific work in publicity.

My gratitude to the archaeologists David Madsen, Evelyn Seelinger, Robert Bettinger, and Robert Elston for allowing me to translate on their 1991 expedition to Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Special thanks to Dr. Madsen whose advice on matters related to archaeology continued through the final draft.

To Bai Xiaobei, for her thoughtful review of the Chinese phrases in the book and her wonderful insights into its Chinese characters, my unending appreciation. A grateful salute to Zhang Jian for helping.

Thanks to the friends and fellow writers who read drafts: Peter Elbling, Liza Taylor, Tarabu Betserai Kirkland, Brian Cullman, Jill Peacock, Daniel Cano, Diane Sherry, Marjorie David, Jamie Bernstein Thomas, George Madarasz, Anita Witt, and-my China Trade partner-Cyndi Crabtree. Thanks to Mona Simpson for her early support. Thanks to my teacher Jim Krusoe, in whose class this novel was begun. Thanks to my other teachers, especially Mary Wong, Lin Duan, and the remarkable Dr. Ger-bei Lee for opening the door into Chinese. Thanks to Nobuko Miyamoto for the inspiration of her work and for years of fruitful discussion of some of the issues in this book.

My deepest appreciation to the countless people I’ve met and known in China over the past twenty-one years who have candidly related their hopes, regrets, and life histories to me. Thank you, all. Without you the Chinese characters in this book could never have been imagined.

I am indebted to many secondary sources in addition to those, cited at the front of the book, from which previously published material is quoted. Chief among these additional sources are Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China, James L. Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski, editors; The Cam-bridgeEncyclopedia of China, Brian Hook, editor, and Denis Twitchett, consultant editor; Half of Man Is Woman and GettingUsed to Dying by Zhang Xianliang; A Photographer in OldPeking by Hedda Morrison; China Pop by Jianying Zha; China Wakes by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn; In Search of Old Peking by L. C. Arlington and William Lewisohn; and The Years That Were Fat by George Kates.

Finally, the greatest thanks are due to my husband, Paul Mones. Without his support, encouragement, constant stream of great ideas, and general all-around valorous partnership, I’d never have written this book at all.