Acknowledgements
The editors gratefully acknowledge financial and organizational support provided by the International Academy for China Studies (IACS) at Peking University, and in particular its Director, Prof. Yuan Xingpei, Prof. Liu Yucai, Chief Editor of Newsletter for International China Studies, Ms. Gu Xiaoling, Office Director, and Ms. Zheng Qian, Executive Assistant. The IACS served as the host of our authors’ symposium held in August, 2019, where the papers for this volume were first presented. We also wish to express our appreciation to Prof. Cheng Zhangcan of Nanjing University, Prof. Zhang Jie of Anhui Normal University, Prof. Qian Zhaoming of Hangzhou Normal University, and Ms. Zhang Yuan of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for their contributions to the symposium. Last but hardly least, we are indebted to our editors at Brill, Masja Horn and Christa Stevens, for their steadfast support and encouragement throughout the process that has resulted in this volume, and to Bart Nijsten for his meticulous preparation of the manuscript for publication.