At first, I was elated when the Hunan Provincial Museum
invited me to their International Symposium Commemorating the 40th
Anniversary of the Excavation of the Han Tombs at Mawangdui. Elated to be
surrounded by experts and scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America who
research myriad aspects of Mawangdui. To meet people whose work I had studied
in preparing my book, At Home in Her Tomb.
To return to Changsha, where Lady Dai and her family had lived and were buried
in their lavish tombs.
But then reality and intimidation set in. Like the other
symposium participants, I was expected to make a presentation. Oh no. This was
the audience I worried about while writing the book because they would know if
I had made any mistakes. And now, what could I say about writing a children's book
that would possibly be of interest to scholars? Could the book interest them as
a research project on introducing Mawangdui to students and nonspecialists—people
who haven't heard about the tombs and don't know how important they are?
