The People’s Republic of Desire

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my former editor at the South China Morning Post, Susan Sams, who decided to publish my unconventional column "People's Republic of Desire" on page one of the "Life and City" section of the paper – which ran two years and ten months, and turned out to be more successful than we'd all expected. During the running period of the column, I received letters from readers of all nationalities, age groups, and professions. It amazed me that a Hong Kong – based paper could actually reach out to so many people around the globe. Thank you, Charlotte Harper, for showing the column samples to Susan Sams.

My gratitude also goes to four diehard supporters of this book: my best friend, Antony Dapiran, an international lawyer whose Chinese is perfect, who gave me so much help in the early stages from language, translation, to reading my contract pro bono. Without his friendship and encouragement, this book would have been impossible. Michael Davis, who started as a reader of my column in Manhattan, but has become a good friend, who wrote me feedback on almost every column and continued our conversation on the characters of this book face-to-face in New York, Fredericksburg, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Also, Michael Rice and Ben Paul, both of you are wonderful! Gracias!

Finally, I thank my editor, Claire Wachtel, who has a great sense of humor; everyone at Harper, and my agent, Liza Daw-son, who has helped make this book possible.