The first epigraph is taken from Adrienne Rich’s essay, ‘Notes Towards a Politics of Location’, published in Blood, Bread and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979–1985. The second is from the Tao Te Ching, section 16. English translations for the latter vary considerably; I like Derek Lin’s ‘the self is no more, without danger,’ and A. Charles Muller’s ‘Though you lose the body, you do not die.’
‘To photograph someone is a sublimated murder’ is a line from Susan Sontag, On Photography.
‘Do you recognise me, air?’ is from Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus (trans. Stephen Mitchell).
*
I lived in Beijing from 2014–2016; this book began to possess me on the subway. I wrote a rough draft during a residency at Yaddo in 2015, and remain grateful to the Corporation of Yaddo for that gift of time, space and brilliant company. The writing was also supported by a residency at Bundanon in 2017 and by Copyright Agency CREATE funding, some of which enabled me to return to Beijing in 2018. My thanks to both Bundanon Trust and the Copyright Agency.
I’m indebted to the Asialink Foundation for the Arts, which first sent me to Beijing in 2010, to the much-missed Beijing Bookworm for hosting that residency and making me welcome on subsequent visits, and to the staff at the Australian Embassy in China for their support.
I feel enormously fortunate to have worked with Mathilda Imlah, Georgia Douglas, Emma Schwarcz and the team at Picador, whose careful labours on this book have been very much appreciated. Sincere thanks also to generous and attentive first readers, Adolfo Aranjuez and Jinghua Qian, whose comments were invaluable. Any remaining flaws are, of course, my own.
Particular thanks to Hannah May Caspar, for the whole adventure – and for living with me and my ghosts.