There are so many authors whose friendship I treasure. You may not realize it but sometimes your words and support have made the difference between giving up and staying with the job of writing. There are too many to list, but thank you: Caroline Adderson, Matthew Boroson, Kate Hilton, June Hutton, Julia Claiborne Johnson, Shaena Lambert, Evelyn Lau, Mary Novik, Roberta Rich, Jennifer Robson, and Sam Wiebe. And of course, each and every one of the Tall Poppy Writers, for providing moral support, professional advice, and plenty of laughs.

A very big thank-you to the Canada Council for the Arts. I could not have written this novel without your support. It felt very meaningful to receive assistance from an organization dedicated to advancing Canada’s cultural identity while I was writing a novel about a government’s wartime efforts to preserve a country’s culture.

So many thanks and hugs to “my” team at HarperCollins Canada and William Morrow, especially Iris Tupholme and Jennifer Brehl. Thank you yet again for believing in me and in this story. Janice Zawerbny, bless you and your editorial insights, and thank you for not laughing at my struggles with close third-person POV. Also much gratitude to Cory Beatty, Michael Guy-Haddock, Michael Millar, Lauren Morocco, Amelia Wood, Camille Collins, Shelby Peak, Laurie McGee, Elsie Lyons, and Diahann Sturge. To Jill Marr, my agent, and everyone at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency: a third book! Sometimes it’s still hard to believe I’m a published author. Thank you for helping me in this adventure.

Last but never least—thank you, Geoffrey. Your support matters more than any other.

Resources

For those interested in learning more about the liuwang students as well as the refugee situation in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the following books are very worthwhile:

The Great Flowing River: A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan, by Bangyuan Qi, John Balcom (translator). Columbia University Press (2018)

Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze, by Peter Harmsen. Casemate Publishing (2013)

In a Sea of Bitterness: Refugees During the Sino-Japanese War, by R. Keith Schoppa. Harvard University Press (2011)

Race the Rising Sun, by Chao-Min Hsieh, Jean Kan Hsieh. Hamilton Books (2009)

Wuhan, 1938: War, Refugees, and the Making of Modern China, by Stephen R. MacKinnon. University of California Press (2008)

Lianda, A Chinese University in War and Revolution, by John Israel. Stanford University Press (1998)

Teaching in Wartime China, by Edward Gulick. University of Massachusetts Press (1995)

In the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Shanghai Under Japanese Occupation, by Christian Henriot. Cambridge University Press (2004)

Some online information about the real encyclopedias:

P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

About the Author

Meet Janie Chang

About the Book

Reading Group Guide

Behind the Book: The Years of War

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An Excerpt from Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang

About the Author

Meet Janie Chang