Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments I never thought I would write a book, let alone a book about modern China. And yet, looking back, I realize that I have trained for two decades to complete this task. Governing the Dead began in Connecticut. Tek-wah King, my first Chinese language teacher, had more faith in me than I had in myself at times. Frederick Paxton took me to the necropolis underneath the Vatican during the study-abroad program in Rome, and the rest, as they say, is history. I am grateful to Alexis Dudden, Bill Frasure, Yibing Huang, Don Peppard, and John Tian, who provided encour- agement inside and outside the classroom. While studying in Hawaii, David McCraw taught me classical Chinese. Liam Kelly trained me how to read primary sources. Shana Brown and Giovanni Vitiello expanded my under- standing of Chinese history and culture. I am thankful for the foundation that they set as I embarked on my research. My extended cohort at the University of California at Berkeley—Matthew Berry, David Bratt, Jesse Chapman, Caleb Ford, Kevin Li, Peiting Li, James Lin, William Ma, Daryl Maude, Emily Ng, Joseph Passman, Jon Pitt, Larissa Pitts, Jon Soriano, Jonathan Tang, Lucia Tang, Yun-ling Wang, Jesse Watson, Brandon Kirk Williams, Trenton Wilson, Eloise Wright, Kankan Xie, Shoufu Yin, Patricia Yu, and Yueni Zhong—read many draft chapters and offered insightful comments. Their patience in wrangling with my awkward prose amazed me. Their intellectual prowess continues to inspire me. Many sen- pai , Nicole Barnes, Emily Baum, Mary Brazelton, Zach Fredman, Arunabh Ghosh, Judd Kinzley, Eric Schluessel, Philip Thai, and Margaret Tillman have shared their wisdom over meals over many years. I am grateful for their camaraderie, brilliance, and generosity. Andrew Barshay, Alex Cook, Thomas Laqueur, Kevin O’Brien, and Peter Zinoman, as mentors, held my work to high standards and guided me through the journey. This book carries their intellectual imprints. Wen-hsin Yeh, who tolerated my many mischiefs, shepherded me through the research vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and writing, and continued to support me after I left Berkeley. She patiently read many drafts of this book. I truly hope she will not be disappointed with the final version. I am thankful for the support from the staff at Academia Historica, Aca- demia Sinica, the Beijing Municipal Archives, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library, the Chongqing Municipal Archives, the Guangdong Provincial Archives, the Guangzhou Municipal Archives, the Jiangsu Pro- vincial Archives, the Nanjing Municipal Archives, the National Archives (United Kingdom), the National Central Library (Taiwan), the Second His- torical Archives of China, the Shanghai Municipal Archives, and the Shang- hai Municipal Library. The reading room staff of Academia Historica in the Xindian office, which is far from town, always made sure to include me when they ordered lunch. Jane Liau and everyone at the Center for Chinese Stud- ies at the National Central Library offered me not only encouragement but also plenty of Taiwanese snacks when I came to the office. Their kindness made long-term archival research away from home less excruciating. At the University of California at Berkeley, Jianye He at the C. V. Starr East Asia Library ordered printed primary sources for my research. My work over the years has been funded by a Eugene Cota-Robles Fellow- ship, Liu Family Fellowship in Chinese Studies, Republic of China East Asian Fellowship, Helen Gan-Richard Aston Fellowship for Chinese Economic and Social History, and University of California at Berkeley Normative Time Fel- lowship. I also received two Summer Research Grants, two Haas Junior Scholar Fellowships, seven Center of Chinese Studies Conference Travel Grants, two History Department Conference Travel Grants, and a Summer Mentorship grant. In addition, with funding from the National Central Library’s Center for Chinese Studies in Taiwan, the US Fulbright Student Research Program, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Association for Asian Studies China and Inner Asia Council, and the Center for Asian Research at Arizona State University, I have been able to collect archival materials and share results at conferences. Without this generous financial support, I would not have been able to devote myself to completing this book. My online book workshop with Hongwei Bao, Howard Chiang, and Liang Luo, none of whom I have never met in person, was just the boost I needed to keep ploughing through the editing. I am also grateful for the in-person book workshop sponsored by the Li Ka-Shing Foundation Pro- gram in Modern Chinese History at the University of California at Berke- ley. Paulina Hartono, Brooks Jessup, Abhishek Kaicker, Micah Muscolino, Rebecca Nedostup, Nick Tackett, Jeff Weng, and Wen-hsin Yeh generously offered their time and expertise. I am glad they did not let me get away with ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix unsupported statements. Joe Esherick, in particular, saved this book from various inaccuracies. The remaining errors are all mine. I would like to thank my colleagues at Arizona State University: Rich- ard Amesbury, Alex Aviña, Hannah Baker, Andrew Barnes, Jonathan Barth, Volker Benkert, Nila Bhattacharjya, Adrian Brettle, Huaiyu Chen, Sookja Cho, Anna Cichopek-Gajraj, Anne Feldhaus, Tracy Fessenden, Monica Green, Chouki El Hamel, Tobias Harper, Alexander Henn, Anna Holian, Chris Jones, Timothy Langille, Julian Lim, Laurie Manchester, Yan Mann, Catherine O’Donnell, Katherine Osburn, Yasmin Saikia, Calvin Schermer- horn, Juliane Schober, and Mark Tebeau. They welcomed me with open arms, invited me out to lunch, read my book, and gave me good advice on how to survive the first academic job. The former director of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Matt Delmont, was espe- cially accommodating and encouraging. Steve MacKinnon and Jim Rush often check in on me, which I very much appreciate. The late Aaron Moore not only read many parts of my work but also mentored me to be a better teacher and faculty member. The staff at the School of Historical, Philo- sophical and Religious Studies—Yvonne Delgado, Erica May, Carrie Mon- tana, Marissa Timmerman, and Becky Tsang—have made my work easier and more enjoyable. The students in my modern Chinese history classes have held me to the highest standards of clear communication. I have presented various parts of this book at the American Society for Legal History, the Association for Asian Studies, the Historical Society for Twentieth Century China, the National Central Library’s Center for Chinese Studies (Taipei), the Law and Society Association, the Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research, the Summer Seminars in Asian Arts, Religion and History (Shanghai), the UCSIA Summer School (Antwerp), the Visions of Humanity Conference (Berlin), the Winter Institute (Taipei), and many other conferences. Besides the presentations, countless conversations and delicious meals, from Trondheim to Tel Aviv, have sustained me over the last decade of writing. Without the international academic community, I would not have been able to produce this book. Ed McCord and an anonymous scholar read the book carefully and offered a wide range of suggestions. Their critiques have made the book significantly stronger. The editors, staff, and Faculty Board at Cornell University Press have worked on my book during a seemingly unending pandemic. In par- ticular, Emily Andrew, Alexis Siemon, Allegra Martschenko, and Mary Kate Murphy have guided me through the process with expertise and patience. Allison Van Deventer and Monica Achen improved much of the prose of my book with their keen copyediting. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Some parts of chapters 2 and 4 have been published as “Martyred Patri- archs, Institutionalized Virtues, and the Gendered Republic of Twentieth- Century China,” Modern China (OnlineFirst): 1–30. Copyright © 2019 (SAGE), doi: 10.1177/0097700419887466. I would like to thank SAGE Publi- cations and the journal for their permission to reproduce these parts. Although my parents would have preferred me to pursue a different career and lifestyle, they have never been “tiger parents.” I appreciate that they allowed me to explore my own worlds. Smokey and Tamago have duly reminded me to take naps as frequently as I need to sustain the endless writ- ing and rewriting. And finally, thank you, Ben, for having been with me since the beginning of my adult life. GOVERNING THE DEAD .