In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Much of the pleasure I have derived from writing this book came from the conversations I have had with the extraordinary scholars I have met. I am deeply grateful to my dissertation advisors, Judith Butler, Lydia Liu, Andrew Jones, and Colleen Lye. I would like to thank Anindita Banerjee, Dan Boucher, Calum Carmichael, Debra Castillo, Samuel Cheung, Walter Cohen, Chris Connery, Jonathan Culler, Brett de Bary, David Eng, Ed Gunn, TJ Hinrichs, Peter Hohendahl, Christine Hong, Wengqing Kang, Bill Kennedy, Dominick LaCapra, Barry Maxwell, Kathleen McCarthy, Natalie Melas, Jonathan Monroe, Timothy Murray, Lisa Rofel, Nancy Ruttenburg, Neil Saccamano, Naoki Sakai, Paul Stasi, Amy Villarejo, Sophie Volpp, Andy Chih-ming Wang, Ding Xiang Warner, and Kenneth Wu for their encouragement and advice throughout the writing process. I would like to thank Anne Allison, Leo Ching, and Hank Okazaki for inviting me to present an early version of Chapter Four at the 2005 “Martial Arts/Global Flows” conference at Duke University. Chapter Two was presented as an invitational lecture in Berkeley in 2007. Completion of this manuscript was made possible by grants provided by the Berkeley Institute for East Asian Studies, Cornell Society for the Humanities, the Telluride Association, and Cornell University Hull Memorial Publication Fund. Various friends and colleagues have assisted me in my research at the Center for the Study of Sexualities, the Center for the Study of Martial Arts Fiction, Academia Sinica, the National Central Library, and the Shanghai Municipal Library. I would also like to thank ChiuHua Chiang, Chu Yu-Li, Cui Zi’en, Kuan-Hsing Chen, Naifei Ding, Josephine Ho, Ruhong Lin, Huang Fushan, Hans Tao-Ming Huang, x STATELESS SUBJECTS Lin Bao-chun, Wah-Guan Lim, Liu Jen-peng, Jiazhen Ni, Amie Parry, and Wang Ping for their assistance. I am grateful to my research assistants, Sue Besemer, Han Xin, Enajite Onos, Wu Xian, Aaron Hodges, Sean Connolly, Sheri Englund, and Shao Wenteng. Anthony Reed and Madeleine Casad read the entire manuscript and provided invaluable comments and editorial suggestions. I would like to thank the anonymous referees and my marvelous editor at Cornell East Asia Series, Mai Shaikhanuar-Cota, for their critical comments and guidance in the preparation of the final manuscript. My family and friends supported me through the years in ways that no words of gratitude can describe: Jean Liu, Kevin Huang, Sandy Liu, Itzik Giat, Rebecca Giat, Sharon Giat, Mario Choi, Loan Dao, Bobby Diep, Alvin Hung, Stephen Lau, Brian Lin, Helen Lin, Manuel Gonzales, Amy Hsiao, Yenling Tsai, Pearl Tseng, and Tony Wu. My parents, Shyi-Huei Liu and Mei-Fang Lee, have been my first and best teachers of literature. This book is dedicated to them. ...

Share