The Epilogue highlights the many contradictions around the existence of concubines in Republican China. The new civil code aimed to eliminate concubines. Yet concubines not only flourished but also became highly visible and controversial players in China’s rapidly evolving public sphere. Seen from the perspective of individual concubines’ lives, their status was complex: They lived in a state of flux that an “overall”argument cannot easily summarize. Each woman’s life was shaped by her specific situation and personal circumstances. Secondly, the Epilogue recapitulates the range of intertwined historical forces that the existing literature on efforts to abolish concubinage has largely overlooked. The increasing visibility and influence of women in Republican social and diplomatic functions is a topic deserving further study. Thirdly, it extends the discussion on the social wife to “wife diplomacy”in Mao’s era and contemporary China. Finally, it demonstrates that, during the Mao era, former concubines resurfaced in public and political spheres, though this time primarily as targets of re-education, political struggle, and persecution.