A fascination with 1988, the most liberal moment in China since 1949, inspired this study, as did a frustration with breathless accounts of present day social change in China. As an historian, I wanted to trace the roots of contemporary developments, building on an almost fortyyear acquaintance with life in China. Many people and institutions have kindly enabled me to do this. A major grant from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand provided much appreciated support for several visits to China. The Lee Hysan Foundation generously supported a two-month period working in the Universities Service Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The PekingUniversity Library was a productive home base for much of this research. Other institutions that helped include the Shanghai Library, the Library of the China Youth University for Political Sciences in Beijing, the National Library in Beijing, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Research support also came from the University of Auckland, including its Faculty of Arts. Many colleagues and friends have helped along the way, including Philip Abela, Chris Berry, Tony and Susan Browne, Chen Xin, BrianDonovan, Hong-yu Gong,AndersHansson, Wayne Lawrence, HaiqingLin, Bonnie McDougall, Rumi Sakamoto, RobertSanders, Rebecca Wu Xiaojing, and Zhou Xuelin. Bonnie McDougall and Stanley Rosen offered valuable advice at crucial points in the project. Linda Lew made good use of a University of Auckland Summer Scholarship to trawl the Internet on my behalf. Jeff Lau has helped keep me grounded. At Cambridge in New York, Eric Crahan and Abigail Zorbaugh provided vital encouragement and support. These people and institutions, along with numerous friends and colleagues in China whom I have not named, have made the research a pleasure and this book possible. I warmly thank them all, including those whom I have not identified. The book’s shortcomings are mine alone.