I am extremely grateful for being introduced to China through translation.I studied Chinese in college (so I know how hard it is to translate into Chinese - thank you translator!), and then I had the opportunity to study in China, first in Kunming and then in Beijing.Living in China, learning the Chinese language, and gradually assimilating into a culture very different from my own, this experience deeply affected me: I got to know China (I am ashamed to admit that I had almost no idea about this country before). Not only that, but back in the U.S., my experience in China allowed me to see my home country with clearer eyes.

Leaving my native land, assimilating into another country, and then returning to my native land—this process has elevated me as a writer and allowed me to see the world with wider eyes.It never occurred to me that this experience would be such a precious gift in life.It is a great honor for me to be translated into Chinese—a language that I have struggled to learn.I very much hope that this book will allow Chinese readers to travel to a new and distant world like me.I hope it will keep you entertained, and maybe it will give you a little new perspective on the possible futures of the world, the futures we all tend to, no matter what country we belong to and what language we speak.

I have never realized soberly like now that the universe is one and that all human beings share the same future.Human beings around the world are one race, not scattered groups divided by country, language, and culture. We either prosper as a whole, or we all fall together.I believe there is still opportunity for the future of humanity, and I believe that we will eventually make choices that will benefit all of us for future generations.To this day, I still hold onto that hope.