This memoir, a genre completely new to me, has benefited immensely from the advice and encouragement of friends and colleagues. I was persuaded to write it in the first instance by my longtime partner, Elizabeth Sinn, to whom the memoir is dedicated. The first person to read it after Elizabeth was Alan Lebowitz, who brought to the reading two special qualities: first, his field of professional interest, American and English literature, could not be further from mine, and second, he and I have been good friends for more than sixty-five years. Alan’s insightful comments on the first draft—and later on a revised draft—were extremely helpful. Others who agreed to read it and give me their thoughts, all either China or Japan specialists, were John Israel, Jeff Wasserstrom, Irv Scheiner, Ross Terrill, Tom Havens, Chris Munn, and Michael Szonyi. I am indebted to them all for their suggestions for improvement.
Since Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies does not regularly publish books, a committee was formed to work out publication arrangements. Aside from me, the committee consisted of Michael Szonyi (director of the Fairbank Center), Daniel Murphy (executive director of the Center), and Bob Graham (director of the Harvard University Asia Center’s Publications Program). At all stages of preparation of the work, I received much sound advice from Bob, who also lined up professional talent to assist in the book’s production. Thanks go also to Lisa Cohen, who prepared the illustrations for publication, Justin Wong for making available photographic material in the possession of the Fairbank Center,
Finally, I thank the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, which has been an intellectual home to me for over half a century, and the Centre of Asian Studies and Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, which during my frequent visits to Hong Kong over the past two decades have generously provided me with office space, administrative support, and a congenial and stimulating intellectual environment.