Writers of the historical introduction in the novel - Mei-fen Kuo and Michael Williams - identify Wong Shee Ping, the editor of Chinese Times in the early 1900s (as yet unconfirmed).
'China and the West in the Modern World publishes original, peer-reviewed research on cultural, diplomatic, and trade relations between China and the West from the accession of the Manchu Qing dynasty in 1644 to the present. The series aims to map and interpret historical and cultural interactions during the gradual opening up of China to an enterprising and expansive West as a sequence of Chinese emperors and governments developed policies of accommodation and exclusion in reaction to pressure from Western commerce, culture, and religion. The focus of this series will be on the way different events, ideas and beliefs, and cultural practices (in art, architecture, literature, music, science, trade, politics, diplomacy, gender and family relations, cooking and dress) of the Chinese and Western nations were understood and evaluated – and misunderstood and misevaluated – by each other. The series brings into play different national and disciplinary perspectives to achieve a more thorough and cross-culturally nuanced understanding of the political, economic, and cultural background to the negotiations and realignments currently underway between China and Western nations.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Number in series: 1