Saturday, 22 February

Twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month

Out shopping with Yukun the whole day. I am at my happiest going around the slum district picking up a few useful articles; I looked at the faces of those poor folks; I tried to engage with their simple happiness when they could gain a few cents, or to sympathise with their sorrow whilst this pastime is one of the favourable ways of passing my spare hours.

Huang Junbi joined us for lunch. He asked my advice as to whether he should take an adventurous trip to America. I advised against it. It is not so easy to make money out of the oversea Chinese nowadays; and certainly hopeless for a painter like him.