Through the long years developing this book, I often imagined the joy of the day when I would write the acknowledgments. Yet, when the time has finally arrived, I find the task exceedingly difficult. As the book is so closely entangled with my life for the past fourteen years, essentially everyone whose insight, support, and kindness has nurtured me as a person has contributed to the formation of the book.
For the genesis of this project, I am indebted to the late Kermit Champa, to whom I never had the opportunity to say thank you in person. His seminar on nineteenth-century photography turned a student of premodern China into an unregretful researcher on modern and contemporary Chinese art. I would have become a very different scholar and person without the guidance of my dissertation committee at Brown University: my supervisor, Douglas Nickel, and committee members Mark Swislocki and Herve Vanel. I see their influence in every section of this book. My gratitude to and admiration for Doug is simply beyond words.
I want to thank the University of Toronto for requiring a book contract instead of a published book for tenure, which makes it possible for junior faculty members to incorporate their additional intellectual growth into their first books. Since 2012, I have suffered many setbacks. For years, even when I began to consider myself a “problem case,” my senior colleagues at Toronto, including my department chair, William Bowen, showed unwavering confidence in me. In a day when young scholars are increasingly treated as disposable items if their productivity is not at its peak for whatever reason, I cannot thank the university enough for its culture of genuine support and care.
Toronto has provided an ideal home for me to complete this book. Over
I am indebted to the many senior scholars in the field of Chinese art history and Chinese photography studies—Julia Andrews, Craig Clunas, Gu Zheng, Jin Yongquan, Li Weiming, Claire Roberts, Kuiyi Shen, Eugene Wang, Wu Hung—whose generosity and encouragement have provided tremendous support at pivotal junctures of this project. I am thankful to Weihong Bao, Cai Tao, Ding Lanxiang, Gao Chu, Hu Bin, Nicole Huang, Liu Yu-jen, Juliane Noth, Tang Hongfeng, Wan Xinhua, Wei Xiangqi, Wu Xueshan, Roberta Wue, and Zhou Bo for many stimulating moments sharing ideas and research. I want to thank Qiu Shinan and Zhang Feng for encouraging and facilitating my field research in rural China in the summer of 2018 so that I could connect this book—the development of which had been completed by 2014—with some of my new research interests through an epilogue that looks at contemporary China.
I would not have been able to make the arguments in this book legible without the generosity of many artists’ families, collectors, museums, and auction houses. I want particularly to thank the Shanghai Library and the professionalism and kindness of Huang Wei and Xu Fan. Yu Ben’s son, Yu Jinsen, sent me valuable research materials in addition to providing image permissions. A special thank you is due to Ding Lanxiang, Wei Xiangqi, Wan Xinhua, Gao Chu, Cai Tao, Li Kang, and Wu Xueshan for so generously sharing their social and professional connections so that I could maneuver the impossible terrain of image permissions for modern Chinese paintings. I am also grateful to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and the University of Toronto Scarborough Research Impact Fund for subvention support.
I have learned so much from my editors at the Harvard University Asia Center. Robert Graham, Deborah Del Gais, and Kristen Wanner walked me through the process with able and assuring hands. In addition to editorial guidance, Deborah provided instrumental suggestions to improve the clarity of my argument. I am indebted to Susan Stone for meticulous editing, which was particularly needed
I am grateful to my dear friends Liu Wennan, Zheng Mingyu, Lisa Tom, Wang Lijuan, Zhang Yi, and Liu Jing for being such loving and reliable support. My extended family—my uncles Gu Xuehua, Ding Xingbao, and Ding Yunbao, and my aunt Gu Xueying—have helped tremendously especially during my mother’s illness and my father’s last days. My immediate family—my father, Gu Xueren; my mother, Ding Peirong; and my former partner Philip Caffery—gave me encouragement and patience throughout the up and downs. Phil read more about Chinese art than any science researcher ever needs to and helped me to find my voice as a writer in English. It has not been an easy ride, and I am incredibly grateful to have had their company. To them this book is dedicated.