Acknowledgement
First and foremost, my gratitude goes to all contributors, to all of the participants of the international seminar on “Eastern and Western Synergies and Imaginations” held at the University of Macau (UM) in November 2015, and to my colleague Matthew Gibson, with whom I worked in the cross-disciplinary project “Theatre of Macao” (2015–2017), funded by the then Research and Development Administration Office of UM. I am also grateful to Qin Higley and Lauren Bissonette for their enthusiasm for the topic from its inception, to Elizabeth You for her unfailing support throughout the review and production stages, as well as to series editor George Wei for giving the current collection of essays an ideal home.
I would like to express my deep affection to the petite, charming city of Macao, which has become my second home, and where my work on cross-cultural studies and Macao studies began. Special thanks are due to outgoing and current colleagues at UM, in particular Lionel Ni, for their formative advice and encouragement. To my student writers and performers of The Three Ladies of Macao, published as an appendix in this very volume: thank you for bringing your diverse, multi-cultural energies to all our writing and rehearsal sessions; I could not have done it without you.
To Paul Flower – my partner and best friend, thank you for your love, critique, and support. Your artwork has once again bookended my east-west venture, literally and metaphorically.
In-flight Rome to London
July 2019