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Acknowledgments A book on collaboration must acknowledge all of those collaborators who have helped make this book possible. At UC Irvine, I worked with a number of professors who were formative in shaping my intellectual inquiries from the beginning, guiding me toward the career path I am on today. They are Gabriele Schwab, Ketu Katrak, and Jane Newman. Among my committee members, Laura Hyun Yi Kang has been a forceful presence in my academic life then and now, providing me with ready advice, encouragement, and support. Animated conversations with Glen Mimura at UCI have also inspired many ideas that later took root in this book. In Asian American Studies, Linda Trinh-Võ always offered a place in her office for me as a graduate student. Now, as colleagues working on various collaborations, I appreciate even more than before Linda’s strength and wisdom. At UC Riverside, I have the pleasure of being among very generous colleagues. When I first arrived to UCR, Women’s Studies was a most welcoming department. Alicia Arrizón, Piya Chatterjee, Christine Gailey , Amalia Cabezas, Chikako Takeshita, and Tracy Fisher have been a constant source of mentoring and good wishes. My home department is now Media and Cultural Studies. In this department, I appreciate the allies I have in Toby Miller, Keith Harris, Andrea Smith, Ruhi Khan, Wendy Su, Derek Burrill, Ken Rogers, Tim Labor, and Setsu Shigematsu. I also thank Carole-Anne Tyler, Michelle Bloom, Vorris Nunley, Katherine Kinney , and Traise Yamamoto for the snippets of advice they have doled out to me throughout these years. While writing and researching the book, viii / acknowledgments I have relied on the faculty in the Southeast Asian Studies Program for their warm conviviality and intellectual vivacity. They include Deborah Wong, Henk Meier, Sally Ness, David Biggs, and Rene Lysloff. I would like to especially thank my colleagues Christina Schwenkel, Tamara Ho, and Freya Schiwy, who have integrally helped to see this book through, providing invaluable feedback on my work and so much encouragement throughout the process. Beyond UCR, other colleagues from whom I continue to learn a great deal are Dorinne Kondo, Bliss Cua Lim, Jim Lee, Jane Iwamura, erin Khuê Ninh, Adam Knee, Gaik Khoo, Sophia Harvey, Nhi Lieu, Caroline Kiều Linh Valverde, Quan Tran, Jane Hseu, Wilson Chen, Arnold Pan, and Nguyễn Tân Hoàng. Shepherding me through the publication process was my editor, Janet Francedese, and series editor, David Palumbo-Liu, whose insightful comments meaningfully shaped the book. I would also like to thank my editor, David Martinez, for working on the manuscript with me until the very end. I am grateful to Hong-An Truong for allowing me to use her stunning artwork for the book cover. And special thanks go to Việt Lê for designing the book covers. My heartfelt thanks are also extended to all the people whom I interviewed in the book. Nina McPherson, Dương Thu Hương, Đặng Nhật Minh, and Vũ Ngõc Đãng have opened themselves up to me, allowing me to pore into their documents and peer into their lives. For this I am very grateful. With generous support from a number of institutions, the research for the book was conducted from 2001 to 2007. A Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship, a Vietnamese Advanced Student Institute Fellowship, and a University of California of the President’s Pacific Rim mini-grant funded many trips to France and Việt Nam during my time as a graduate student. In 2006, a Pacific Rim Faculty Grant from UCOP allowed me to do archival research in Hà Nội. Through UCR, I received a Regents Faculty Grant in order to visit the Southeast Asian archives in the south of France in 2007. As a fellow at UCR’s Center for Ideas and Society, I had the good fortune to work with colleagues Jacqueline Shea Murphy, Michelle Raheja, Erika Suderberg, and Patricia Ploesch. There I found the kind of intellectual engagement that assisted me in thinking through questions of embodiment and otherness, central themes in my research. In other “places” outside of academia, I have found other “wonders,” to paraphrase Daniyal Mueenuddin’s book title In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. I am indebted to a group of scholars and friends who come together every now and then for good food and good company. They are cô Kim-Loan Hill, cô Lan Phó, Việt Lê, Như-Ngọc Ông, Mariam B. [3.17.150.163] Project MUSE...

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