Preface:
When the Chinese want to take the mickey out of someone / they say he is wielding an axe at the door of Lu Ban / the patron saint of carpenters.
For a Sinologue to pen a preface / to a book of poems / is something of the sort.
When most of us come back from China / we bring a panda or a terracotta warrior / or perhaps some stories from a guide or taxi driver.
But here we have a clutch of poems / to recreate the whole experience / and we are there again. - Professor David Kane, Chair of Chinese Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney.
