I would like to thank the University of California at Berkeley’s generous financial support of this project through its affordable textbook initiative. Under the thoughtful, knowledgable, and patient guidance of  that initiative’s  Rachael G. Samberg and Stacy Reardon, and pushed forward at many times by their enthusiasm, this book has found a way to the light of day. I would also like to thank my wife for her patience and the sacrifices she made to enable me to complete the work. I am profoundly grateful and well aware of the stress that writing a book brings on one’s partner. Finally, without the students over the years who have taken my course on “Core Romantic Values in East Asian Premodern Literature and Contemporary Film,” bringing their diverse ideas and energy to the topic, there could be no such book as this. They guided and corrected my thought as I developed my ideas and it was for them that I wrote the work. I am truly lucky for the diversity of students who attend this university.