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I also remain indebted to my family and friends near and far for their understanding and support over the years.
Portions of chapters 1, 3, and 4 were published under the following titles, and thanks go to the reviewers and editors:
“From Fatherland to Motherland: On Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum and Big Breasts and Full Hips,” World Literature Today 74, no. 3 (Summer 2000): 495–499.
“ ‘It Is Hard Not to Write Satire’: In A World of Vice and Folly,” American Journal of Chinese Studies 13, no. 2 (2006): 233–259.
“Notes on Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out,” Orientierungen—Zeitschrift zur Kultur Asiens: Chinesische Gegenwartsliterature: Zwischen Plagiat und Markt? [Orientations—Journal for Asian Culture: Contemporary Chinese Literature: Between Plagiarism and Market Place?] (2009): 95–105.
Special thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers for their incisive comments, suggestions, and criticism, and to the editors and staff members of Cambria Press for their patience and diligent work.
Last but not least, I would also like to express my gratitude to Howard Y. F. Choy (
), my husband, classmate, friend, and comrade. I have been enormously motivated by the feeling of working hard in concert with my loved one.
I dedicate this book to my late parents, Chan Yau (
) (aka Chen Guoan 
) and Chiang Wai Yee (
) (aka Jiang Hua 
), who not only gave me my life but also taught me how to be a good person. I also dedicate this book to my lifetime teachers and mentors, Professor Lu Shourong (
) and Professor Qin Dezhuang (
), who taught me English in their spare time when I was deprived of the right of receiving higher education in China simply because I walked with crutches and who have continued to encourage, support, and care about me in the past decades.