Chia-ning Chang is professor of Japanese literature at the University of California, Davis.

“Li Xianglan or Ri K?ran is a myth-shrouded figure whose remarkable career embodied the ambiguity of national identity and popular culture in wartime East Asia. Was she a tool of Japanese militarism in China? Did she see herself as a Japanese advancing her country’s expansionist policy or as a ‘Chinese’ trying to cooperate with the enemy in building a New Order in East Asia? Or was she just struggling to survive the difficult times? Her poignant, deeply reflective autobiography gives us some insight into these intriguing questions. We are grateful to Chang Chia-ning for this passionate, well-crafted translation, which should find a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the violently intertwined histories of twentieth-century China and Japan.” —Poshek Fu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; “Absorbing memoirs of a fascinating woman! This book presents a vivid recreation of a time and a place, mostly China in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but also of the postwar United States and Japan. The tone is by turns nostalgic, contemplative, gossipy, and remorseful. Ms. Yamaguchi is an impressive raconteur of a life whose boundaries between fact and fiction are tantalizingly - and almost seductively - blurred. Professor Chang’s translation is accomplished, smooth, and flowing, with an extensive, sophisticated, and extremely informative introduction.” —Zeljko Cipris, University of the Pacific

Chia-ning Chang is professor of Japanese literature at the University of California, Davis.

“Li Xianglan or Ri K?ran is a myth-shrouded figure whose remarkable career embodied the ambiguity of national identity and popular culture in wartime East Asia. Was she a tool of Japanese militarism in China? Did she see herself as a Japanese advancing her country’s expansionist policy or as a ‘Chinese’ trying to cooperate with the enemy in building a New Order in East Asia? Or was she just struggling to survive the difficult times? Her poignant, deeply reflective autobiography gives us some insight into these intriguing questions. We are grateful to Chang Chia-ning for this passionate, well-crafted translation, which should find a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the violently intertwined histories of twentieth-century China and Japan.” —Poshek Fu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; “Absorbing memoirs of a fascinating woman! This book presents a vivid recreation of a time and a place, mostly China in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but also of the postwar United States and Japan. The tone is by turns nostalgic, contemplative, gossipy, and remorseful. Ms. Yamaguchi is an impressive raconteur of a life whose boundaries between fact and fiction are tantalizingly - and almost seductively - blurred. Professor Chang’s translation is accomplished, smooth, and flowing, with an extensive, sophisticated, and extremely informative introduction.” —Zeljko Cipris, University of the Pacific

Chia-ning Chang is professor of Japanese literature at the University of California, Davis.

“Li Xianglan or Ri K?ran is a myth-shrouded figure whose remarkable career embodied the ambiguity of national identity and popular culture in wartime East Asia. Was she a tool of Japanese militarism in China? Did she see herself as a Japanese advancing her country’s expansionist policy or as a ‘Chinese’ trying to cooperate with the enemy in building a New Order in East Asia? Or was she just struggling to survive the difficult times? Her poignant, deeply reflective autobiography gives us some insight into these intriguing questions. We are grateful to Chang Chia-ning for this passionate, well-crafted translation, which should find a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the violently intertwined histories of twentieth-century China and Japan.” —Poshek Fu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; “Absorbing memoirs of a fascinating woman! This book presents a vivid recreation of a time and a place, mostly China in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but also of the postwar United States and Japan. The tone is by turns nostalgic, contemplative, gossipy, and remorseful. Ms. Yamaguchi is an impressive raconteur of a life whose boundaries between fact and fiction are tantalizingly - and almost seductively - blurred. Professor Chang’s translation is accomplished, smooth, and flowing, with an extensive, sophisticated, and extremely informative introduction.” —Zeljko Cipris, University of the Pacific