There were two reasons I had to write it all down, I felt. First, I was a witness. I had lived through so much, and I'd be letting myself down if I didn't. Second, many Westerners, like my husband, had studied about China all their lives and knew what happened in which dynasty and so forth even better than I.
在美國我覺得自己一定要寫的原因有二，第一，自己經歷這麼多事，是個見證，不寫出來對不起自己；其次，像我先生這樣的西方人，念了一輩子的書，他們對中國瞭解極了，哪個朝代發生什麼事，比我還清楚。