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Acknowledgments L ike most other books, this one was not written in ingenious isolation . it took shape in conversations in offices and hallways, in coffee shops and wine bars, at dining tables and on sofas; it was fine-tuned at conferences and workshops, many of which included the same groups of people; and it took flight in the virtual spaces of digital scholars’ networks and other electronic discussion sites. Bits and pieces of this book were continuously floating around somewhere—presented, submitted, read, reviewed, and discussed—until they sometimes shone and sparkled miraculously with a quality no longer entirely of my own making. i argue in the pages that follow that such processes of gradual unfolding and ritualistic iteration, of dispersal, ramification, and spread, pertain to a logic of seriality. Add to this the fact that the book is now part of the Asian American History and Culture series, which i have long admired from afar and which greatly influenced my thinking, and it becomes clear that not only the subject matter of this study is marked by seriality. no footnote, no reference listing, and probably not even this acknowledgment can express the significance that the research unit Popular seriality —Aesthetics and Practice (Göttingen University, 2010–2013) has held for this book. i had considered Fu Manchu before, most prominently in the context of my work on transnational correspondences between the United states and China from the 1880s to the 1940s. But it was through the seriality unit that this thinking gained substance and direction. the people in the group forced me to concretize my vague suspicions, to artic- viii Acknowledgments ulate hunches, to pin down associations—in short, to write this book. the driving force behind it all was Frank Kelleter, director of the research unit and its key thinker and theoretician, whose brilliance and knowledge have informed this book in many more ways than i can acknowledge or even trace. he has read much of this book—but even the pages he did not read attest to imaginary and real dialogues, to never-ending exchanges, online and offline. i can say with certainty that this book would not exist without him. shane Denson, my partner in serial crime in the research group, also played a significant role in this book’s inception and realization . shane and i conducted research on serial figures in media change, and while i made Fu Manchu my personal obsession, shane covered infinitely more ground in terms of not only the serial figures he investigated but also the philosophical and theoretical range of concepts and ideas he disclosed and generated. i tried to acknowledge his thoughts and input in this study by referencing his papers, but much of what he has brought to my work is impossible to reference: a little remark here, a recommendation there, an observation on his savvy blog (http://medieninitiative.word press.com), an idea dashed off in the course of a jointly written paper. thanks are due to all the members of the research unit, but i should mention in particular Andreas Jahn-sudmann, Christina Meyer, Bettina soller, and Daniel stein, members whose work resonated especially productively with my own. regina Bendix invited me to present in her wonderful cultural studies “lab” at the Center of Modern humanities in Göttingen—where thomas Kempa and Axel schneider acted as valuable correspondents—material that eventually became Chapter 4 herein. i presented Chapter 6 at a workshop at the historic observatory in Göttingen, which was organized and hosted by Jason Mittell, who collaborated as a fellow with the research unit in 2011–2012 and whose reflections on televisual seriality greatly influenced my own thinking. on the hannover front, the book profited immensely from the Asia-Pacific gang, most particularly Vanessa Künnemann and Kirsten twelbeck, and from the media initiative, ilka Brasch, Felix Brinker, Florian Groß, and—once more— shane Denson. the publication of this book by temple University Press is owed to the wonderful Janet Francendese. i have worked with many editors, but i have never worked with anybody as committed and engaged in all stages of the book production process. i am deeply honored by the attention that David Palumbo-liu, coeditor of the Asian American History and Culture series, gave my work and by the enthusiasm with which he ushered the manuscript through. Jack tchen has been unfailingly generous in his advice and in his support, with respect to both the writing and publishing processes. he...

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