Acknowledgements

Dedication

In memory of 卢天雄 Lú Tiān-xióng, chemist, who, in 1982, at age 50, was a visiting scholar at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. Lú Tiān-xióng was the first person I ever met from China and one of the bravest people I have ever met.

For Wong Young-tsu, my professor of Chinese history at Virginia Tech, 1977-1981, whose vibrant, intelligent voice accompanies me whenever I read Chinese history.

In memory of Gregory Bohdan Kiebuzinski, 1959-2022, beloved, who, in 2020, believed without hesitation that I could return to the study of Mandarin Chinese at age 61.

Acknowledgements

Without the expertise and devotion of friend, instructor, and co-creator “Mary” 侯慧颖 Hóu Huìyǐng, this project would have been impossible.

I am grateful to italki instructor Frank with whom I have consulted about many pivotal sentences.

I treasure my 学习伙伴, George, his fearless experimentation with Mandarin Chinese learning tools, his appreciation for the absurd, and his kindness.

I am grateful for the ever-present support and companionship of our group of 学习伙伴, intrepid daily studiers who check in daily via Google doc.

For assistance with writing about science in plain language - in this case, about lithium - I thank friend and scholar, Tian Gan, Ph.D.

Chapter 12 includes references to the neuroscience of grief, informed by the work of Mary Frances O’Connor, Ph.D., author of The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss (2021).

The reference to 狐狸精 húlíjīng fox spirit in Chapter 17 is inspired by Lady Jing, the main character in Shanghai Immortal, a 2023 fantasy novel by A. Y. Chao. I write about Shanghai Immortal here.

I am grateful to the Mandarin Chinese instructors who got me started in 2020 (listed in the order in which they appeared in my life): Jun, Depeng, Mary, Benfang, Amy, and Frank. More recently, I have appreciated discussing some of this project’s ideas with Annie and Elena Ann.

I offer special thanks to Andrew Methven, founder of RealTime Mandarin, who suggested I read the first Harry Potter novel in Chinese, sentence-by-sentence, even if I had to look up every word. Through following his suggestion, I discovered the wonder of reading Chinese.